Applying the communication theory of Diffusion of Innovations to economic sciences: a response to the ‘Using gossips to spread information’ experiments conducted by the 2019 Nobel Laureates

Drs Abhijit Banergee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their remarkable series of large-scale field experiments to lessen global poverty. The main theoretical framework that they employed was the diffusion of innovations research and practice paradigm (DOI) which has had a long presence in communication research dating back to the 1940s. Here, we reviewed the Nobel laureates’ article, ‘Using gossips to spread information: Theory and evidence from two randomized controlled trials,’ that is illustrative of how economists applied the communication theory of diffusion of innovations to their projects of social change. The present article poses questions and makes recommendations for similar future projects from a communication perspective.