Learning by Doing and Learning from Others in Contraceptive Technology

Abstract

This paper provides a theoretical and empirical investigation of the impact of social learningon modern contraceptive prevalence. A theory is developed where own or neighbors’ experienceincreases the benefit from using modern contraceptives by reducing the uncertaintyregarding contraceptive efficacy. Empirical results from the Indonesian Family Life Surveysuggest that the more own experience of modern contraceptives a woman has she is morelikely to use those methods. However, neighbors’ experience does not have a significant impacton one’s current usage of contraceptives. One explanation of these findings is that theinformation on contraceptive efficacy, or failure rates is likely to contain much noise whenwomen communicate with each other. These findings contrast those of recent literature,which show the adoption of contraceptives by one’s social contacts has positive impact onone’s own adoption.