Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/236389 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 14358
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Information campaigns aimed at empowering the poor often fall short of meeting their desired aims. We study literacy's role in determining their efficacy. First, exploiting an RD design, we show that receipt of information increased household rice receipts by 30 percentage points. Second, we show that approximately half of the effect is driven by household head literacy. Leveraging novel data on the locations and timings of school openings in the 1970s INPRES school building program, we document that household heads' literacy gained during childhood was pivotal for their households subsequently receiving their full entitlement of rice during adulthood.
Subjects: 
poverty
targeting
information
literacy
dynamic complementarity
JEL: 
D04
D73
I21
I28
I32
I38
J24
O12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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