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16:30 | Applied Micro Research Seminar
Prof. Bertil Tungodden: “Edutainment for education: Evidence from a field experiment in Tanzania”
Norwegian School of Economics, Bergen, Norway
Abstract: The present project evaluates an edutainment show broadcasted on national television in Tanzania, aimed at inspiring young people to start their own business and teaching them how to do so. Using a randomized field experiment, where a treatment group is incentivized to watch the edutainment show and a control group is incentivized to watch a soap opera, we find strong evidence of edutainment inspiring the viewers to learn more about entrepreneurship and motivating them to start their own business. Moreover, the show has shaped entrepreneurial mind-sets, in particular among female viewers, and changed perceptions about what characterizes a female entrepreneur. On the other hand, the impact of edutainment on business knowledge is much weaker. In sum, our results suggest that the media may be a very powerful tool to foster entrepreneurship among young people, but also points to limitations of edutainment as a tool to communicate business knowledge.
