Abstract
Can television be used to teach and foster entrepreneurship among youth in developing countries? We report from a randomized control field experiment of an edutainment show on entrepreneurship broadcasted over almost three months on national television in Tanzania. The field experiment involved more than two thousand secondary school students, where the treatment group was incentivized to watch the edutainment show. We find short-term evidence of the edutainment show inspiring the viewers to become more interested in entrepreneurship and business and shaping non-cognitive traits such as risk- and time preferences, and long-term evidence of more business startups; in general, the treatment effects are more pronounced for the female viewers. However, we also find evidence that the encouragement of entrepreneurship discouraged investment in schooling; administrative data show a negative treatment effect on school performance and long-term survey data show that fewer treated students continue schooling.
Highlights
Edutainment shows have a long history in the developed world and are increasingly used in developing countries to educate the population in different spheres of life, including health, human rights, and financial literacy.1 What are the effects of these shows on the viewers? Are they a source of knowledge and behavioral change, or are they largely pure entertainment? These questions are important in the developing world, where poor quality and severe resource constraints in the educational sector make it pertinent to consider complementary approaches to education (Banerjee and Duflo 2011).This paper reports from a randomized control field experiment studying an edutainment show for entrepreneurship, Ruka Juu (“Jump Up”), which was aired on national television in Tanzania during the spring of 2011
Can television be used to teach and foster entrepreneurship among youth in developing countries? We report from a randomized control field experiment of an edutainment show on entrepreneurship broadcasted over almost three months on national television in Tanzania
We have studied the short-term and long-term impacts of an edutainment show on entrepreneurship broadcasted on national television in a developing country
Summary
Edutainment shows have a long history in the developed world and are increasingly used in developing countries to educate the population in different spheres of life, including health, human rights, and financial literacy. What are the effects of these shows on the viewers? Are they a source of knowledge and behavioral change, or are they largely pure entertainment? These questions are important in the developing world, where poor quality and severe resource constraints in the educational sector make it pertinent to consider complementary approaches to education (Banerjee and Duflo 2011). In the focus group discussions, we find strong evidence of the viewers connecting to the life situation and choices of the contestants in the show, which may contribute to explaining both our short-term effects on business ambitions and why we find evidence of behavioral changes almost two years after the show ended This may shed light on the finding that the edutainment show made students drop out of school: two of the six entrepreneurs on the show had dropped out of school and succeeded in establishing their own business. In a very different context, Yanagizawa-Drott (2014) shows how a radio station contributed to the Rwandan genocide by significantly affecting participation in violence and killings These findings show the power of television and radio, and our paper complements them by studying the extent to which television may initiate long-term behavioral changes among youth in entrepreneurship and schooling.
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