Lights, camera, school: Information provision through television during COVID-19 times

This paper examines the effects of providing information on the future benefits of attending school through the airing of a short telenovela titled “Decidiendo para un Futuro Mejor” (Deciding for a Better Future, hereafter DFM) on national television during the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru. DFM utilizes persuasive videos that highlight the advantages of education while providing concrete information on wages and financial aid for higher education. We implemented a randomized encouragement design using phone calls to promote watching TV when DFM videos were screened, with a sample of more than 80,000 families with high school children from 1,978 schools. We investigate the impact of the intervention on dropout rates in 2021. Our findings indicate that the provision of information led to a significant reduction in school dropout rates, with intention to treat effects of about -0.6 pp, which is substantial considering the average dropout rate of 10.2% in the control group. We find stronger effects for students from schools with higher initial dropout and poverty rates. We also find stronger effects for girls, with no observable differences in effects by parental education. These results not only highlight the prevalence of misinformation surrounding education but also suggest cost-effective strategies for mitigating its consequences.