IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ewp/wpaper/461web.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A ‘smart buy' for all? Unequal and unintended consequences of a messaging program for child education

Author

Listed:
  • Elisabetta Aurino

    (University of Barcelona, IEB)

  • Sharon Wolf

    (University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract

Through a large-scale household-randomized trial, we document divergent and unintended effects of a SMS-nudge parenting intervention in Ghana. For parents with some exposure to formal schooling, the program supported parental education engagement, child school participation and social-emotional skills. Conversely, for parents with no schooling, the program backfired, exacerbating educational inequality. Messages also lowered parental selfefficacy, educational aspirations, and the perceived importance of regular school attendance among parents with no schooling. As light-touch, low-tech strategies integrate into education systems to combat the global learning crisis, these findings caution against potential unintended and distributional consequences, particularly in rural, low-literacy contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Elisabetta Aurino & Sharon Wolf, 2024. "A ‘smart buy' for all? Unequal and unintended consequences of a messaging program for child education," UB School of Economics Working Papers 2024/461, University of Barcelona School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ewp:wpaper:461web
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/205763
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Crawfurd, Lee & Evans, David K. & Hares, Susannah & Sandefur, Justin, 2023. "Live tutoring calls did not improve learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sierra Leone," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    2. Amaral, Sofia & Dinarte-Diaz, Lelys & Dominguez, Patricio & Perez-Vincent, Santiago M., 2024. "Helping families help themselves: The (Un)intended impacts of a digital parenting program," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    3. Noam Angrist & Peter Bergman & Moitshepi Matsheng, 2022. "Experimental evidence on learning using low-tech when school is out," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 6(7), pages 941-950, July.
    4. Baird, Sarah & Özler, Berk, 2012. "Examining the reliability of self-reported data on school participation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 89-93.
    5. Damian Clarke & Joseph P. Romano & Michael Wolf, 2020. "The Romano–Wolf multiple-hypothesis correction in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 20(4), pages 812-843, December.
    6. Lelys I. Dinarte Diaz & Saravana Ravindran & Manisha Shah & Shawn M. Powers & Helen Baker-Henningham, 2023. "Violent Discipline and Parental Behavior: Short- and Medium-term Effects of Virtual Parenting Support to Caregivers," NBER Working Papers 31338, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cristia, Julian P. & Cueto, Santiago & Malamud, Ofer & Aulagnon, Raphaëlle, 2024. "Streaking to Success: The Effects of Highlighting Streaks on Student Effort and Achievement," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13498, Inter-American Development Bank.
    2. Jakubowski,Maciej Jan & Gajderowicz,Tomasz Janusz & Patrinos,Harry Anthony, 2024. "COVID-19, School Closures, and Student Learning Outcomes : New Global Evidence from PISA," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10666, The World Bank.
    3. Hassan, Hashibul & Islam, Asad & Kayes, Imrul & Wang, Liang Choon, 2025. "Building education resilience through parenting style and out-of-school learning: Field experimental evidence from rural Bangladesh," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    4. Hernández-Agramonte, Juan Manuel & Namen, Olga & Näslund-Hadley, Emma & Biehl, Maria Loreto, 2024. "Supporting early childhood development remotely: Experimental evidence from SMS messages," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    5. Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie & Maruf Yakubu Ahmed & Phebe Asantewaa Owusu, 2022. "Global adaptation readiness and income mitigate sectoral climate change vulnerabilities," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-17, December.
    6. Henning Hermes & Philipp Lergetporer & Fabian Mierisch & Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold, 2023. "Discrimination on the Child Care Market: A Nationwide Field Experiment," Working Papers 225, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    7. Singhal, Himanshu & Verma, Arushi & Chakraborty, Madhumita, 2024. "The quality of credit ratings amid geopolitical risk," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    8. Dang, Hai-Anh H. & Oseni, Gbemisola & Abanokova, Kseniya, 2025. "Educational inequalities during COVID-19: Results from longitudinal surveys in Sub-Saharan Africa," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    9. Cygan-Rehm, Kamila & Karbownik, Krzysztof, 2022. "The effects of incentivizing early prenatal care on infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    10. Eva M. Berger & Ernst Fehr & Henning Hermes & Daniel Schunk & Kirsten Winkel, 2025. "The Impact of Working-Memory Training on Children’s Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 133(2), pages 492-521.
    11. Singh, Abhijeet & Romero, Mauricio & Muralidharan, Karthik, 2024. "COVID-19 Learning loss and recovery," University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series qt3jj1b8hb, Department of Economics, UC San Diego.
    12. Jacobus de Hoop & Jed Friedman & Eeshani Kandpal & Furio C. Rosati, 2019. "Child Schooling and Child Work in the Presence of a Partial Education Subsidy," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 54(2), pages 503-531.
    13. Henning Hermes & Philipp Lergetporer & Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold, 2021. "Application Barriers and the Socioeconomic Gap in Child Care Enrollment," CESifo Working Paper Series 9282, CESifo.
    14. Wehner, Caroline & de Grip, Andries & Pfeifer, Harald, 2022. "Do recruiters select workers with different personality traits for different tasks? A discrete choice experiment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    15. Ann P. Bartel & Maya Rossin-Slater & Christopher J. Ruhm & Meredith Slopen & Jane Waldfogel, 2021. "The Impact of Paid Family Leave on Employers: Evidence from New York," NBER Working Papers 28672, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Blattman, Christopher & Jamison, Julian & Koroknay-Palicz, Tricia & Rodrigues, Katherine & Sheridan, Margaret, 2016. "Measuring the measurement error: A method to qualitatively validate survey data," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 99-112.
    17. Samuel Dodini, 2023. "Insurance Subsidies, the Affordable Care Act, and Financial Stability," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(1), pages 97-136, January.
    18. Beegle, Kathleen & Dillon, Andrew & Karlan, Dean & Udry, Christopher, 2024. "Introduction to the journal of development economics special issue on methods and measurement," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    19. Li, Zhiyun & Ortiz-Bobea, Ariel, 2022. "On the Timing of Relevant Weather Conditions in Agriculture," 2023 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting, January 6-8, 2023, New Orleans, Louisiana 316528, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Boonmanunt, Suparee & Meier, Stephan, 2023. "The effect of financial constraints on in-group bias: Evidence from rice farmers in Thailand," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 96-109.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education; Parenting interventions; Nudge; Ghana;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ewp:wpaper:461web. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: University of Barcelona School of Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feubaes.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.