To investigate the role of peer effects on farmers’ adoption of water-saving technologies for grain production, this study uses field survey data of grain farmers in Hebei, Shandong and Henan provinces and employs the Probit model to empirically examine the impact of peer effects on farmers’ adoption of water-saving technologies. The results show that: 1) Farmers’ adoption of water-saving technologies are influenced by peer effects from other farmers in the same village, and the results remain significant after dealing with endogeneity issues and robustness tests. 2) Mechanism analysis shows that peer effects promote farmers’ adoption of water-saving technologies by facilitating government technology promotion, enhancing farmers perceived economic and environmental value. 3) Subgroups analysis shows that highly educated farmers exert a demonstration effect on water-saving technologies adoption within the village, while the age of the household head only exhibits within-group peer effects. 4) Further analysis indicates that peer effects play a more pronounced role in regions with higher water scarcity. In conclusion, this study suggests that greater efforts should be made to promote water-saving technologies, leverage the demonstration role of highly educated farmers, and foster a conducive environment for water-saving grain production.
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