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Abstract Learning to take on new social roles is a critical juncture that depends upon the support of others, and perceptions sometimes shape reality. This project frames the process of learning and communication with socially important others in an information asymmetry: while I aspire to take on new social roles, others cannot foresee changes in my attributes -- this I know. Analogous to the analysis of markets in Akerlof (1970), I provide a heuristic framework of strategic behavior under social conventions. The framework helps understand the behavior of youth in an agricultural education program in Liberia, which aims to empower students as agents of diffusion while they learn low-cost, easy-to-use agricultural innovations in schools. According to our pilot survey and focus groups, students hesitate in reaching out to their elders in households because they anticipate elders would not believe in their changes in farming skills and attitudes; elders (typically parents) are not sure if students have paid attention to training in the program. I design a 2 x 2 randomized experiment among 1000 households with students in 50 schools that join the program in 2021. Our interventions encourage students and their elders to imagine, at the beginning of the program, the consequences of students' active participation in the program. In the first randomization, representative elders in half of the households are invited to treatment video sessions that summarize program impact on students’ farming skills, attitudes, and livelihoods from past participants. In the second randomization, we reveal positive expectations of household heads about students’ growth in attributes in 1 year to half of the students. Coupled with a general randomized evaluation of the program (AEARCTR-0006671), a baseline survey is scheduled in June - August 2021 to capture baseline characteristics of students and elders, their 1st and 2nd order beliefs about students' farming skills and attitudes, as well as short-term program impacts. Video sessions for elders and follow-up surveys (which include the revelation treatment) of students take place within 1 day after the baseline survey. We capture impacts on our subjects' forward-looking expectations and real-stake decisions immediately after the interventions. We plan to track, in a post-rainy-season survey and quarterly program monitoring data, students' level of participation in the program, acquisition of new farming practices, communication efforts with their elders, and initiatives in starting their farms outside schools. We will also track auxiliary outcomes in agricultural extension, youth empowerment, and education. Learning to take on new social roles is a critical juncture that depends upon the support of others, and perceptions sometimes shape reality. This project frames the process of learning and communication with socially important others in an information asymmetry: while I aspire to take on new social roles, others cannot foresee changes in my attributes -- this I know. Analogous to the analysis of markets in Akerlof (1970), I provide a heuristic framework of intentional interactions under social conventions. The framework helps understand the behavior of youth in an agricultural education program in Liberia, which aims to empower students as agents of diffusion while they learn low-cost, easy-to-use agricultural innovations in schools. According to our pilot survey and focus groups, students hesitate in reaching out to their elders in households because they anticipate elders would not believe in their changes in farming skills and attitudes; elders (typically parents) are not sure if students have paid attention to training in the program. I design a 2 x 2 randomized experiment among 1000 households with students in 50 schools that join the program in 2021. Our interventions encourage students and their elders to imagine, at the beginning of the program, the consequences of students' active participation in the program. In the first randomization, representative elders in half of the households are invited to treatment video sessions that summarize program impact on students’ farming skills, attitudes, and livelihoods from past participants. In the second randomization, we reveal positive expectations of household heads about students’ growth in attributes in 1 year to half of the students. Coupled with a general randomized evaluation of the program (AEARCTR-0006671), a baseline survey is scheduled in June - August 2021 to capture baseline characteristics of students and elders, their 1st and 2nd order beliefs about students' farming skills and attitudes, as well as short-term program impacts. Video sessions for elders and follow-up surveys (which include the revelation treatment) of students take place within 1 day after the baseline survey. We capture impacts on our subjects' forward-looking expectations and real-stake decisions immediately after the interventions. We plan to track, in a post-rainy-season survey and quarterly program monitoring data, students' level of participation in the program, acquisition of new farming practices, communication efforts with their elders, and initiatives in starting their farms outside schools. We will also track auxiliary outcomes in agricultural extension, youth empowerment, and education.
Last Published July 08, 2021 07:44 AM July 08, 2021 10:30 AM
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