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Field
Abstract
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Before
In Ghana, a large gender gap exists across fields of study in senior secondary school; in home economics, 89.6% of students are girls while in general science, only 34% are girls (Ministry of Education, 2013). Recent literature suggests that schooling choices of girls are particularly influenced by beliefs about their math ability, labor market opportunities, and the role of women in the society (Agbley, 2015; Ajayi and Buessing, 2015). Can providing information about potential abilities and returns to math education in terms of labor market opportunities and family outcomes affect the education investments of girls? We conduct an RCT in Ghana to investigate how these different types of information affect investments in math education in terms of time, schooling expenditures, girls' aspirations, secondary school enrollment rate and the field of study.
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After
In Ghana, a large gender gap in participation exists across fields of study in senior secondary school; in home economics, 89.6% of students are girls while in general science, only 34% are girls (Ministry of Education, 2013). Recent research shows that parents in developing countries are often misinformed about children's performance and educational returns. At the same time, there can exist gender norms that associate to girls lower innate math ability and future roles that may have lower perceived returns to math education. The goal of this research is to investigate how information frictions and societal beliefs can lead to gender differences in investments and aspirations in math-related fields. We conduct an RCT in Ghana to investigate whether providing information can change beliefs about girls’ innate math ability and their aspirations in math education.
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