Subsidies for technology adoption: Experimental evidence from rural Cameroon

We use a two-stage experiment to study how short-term subsidy for new product affects uptake, usage, and future demand the same (a solar lamp). an auction design gauge willingness-to-pay, randomly vary strike price across villages create random variation in purchase prices uptake villages. Our main results are that subsidies do not adversely affect subsequent use, but stimulate uptake. If depress then this effect is outweighed by additional learning about benefits of product. The net increase willingness-to-pay. However; play important allocative role, lowering via encourages households with low intensity. find any evidence supporting social anchoring beyond initial sample beneficiaries. • lamps steeply downward sloping. Prices paid intensity (no sunk cost effect). Higher today WTP anchoring). Experimenting technology raises WTP. no learning.