Replication data for: Persuasion: A Case Study of Papal Influences on Fertility-Related Beliefs and Behavior
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Vittorio Bassi; Imran Rasul
Version: View help for Version V1
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Project Citation:
Bassi, Vittorio, and Rasul, Imran. Replication data for: Persuasion: A Case Study of Papal Influences on Fertility-Related Beliefs and Behavior. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2017. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-10-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/E113671V1
Project Description
Summary:
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We study the persuasive impacts of non-informative communication on the short-run beliefs and long-run behavior of individuals. We do so in the context of the Papal visit to Brazil in
October 1991, in which persuasive messages related to fertility were salient in Papal speeches during the visit. We use individual's exposure to such messages to measure how
persuasion shifts short-run beliefs such as intentions to contracept and long-term fertility outcomes such as the timing and total number of births. To measure the short-run causal
impact of persuasion, we exploit the fact the Brazil 1991 DHS was fielded in the weeks before, during, and after the Papal visit. We use this fortuitous timing to identify that persuasion
significantly reduced individual intentions to contracept by more than 40 percent relative to pre-visit levels, and increased the frequency of unprotected sex by 30 percent. We measure
the long-run causal impacts of persuasion on fertility outcomes using later DHS surveys to conduct an event study analysis on births in a five-year window on either side of the 1991
Papal visit. Estimating a hazard model of fertility, we find a significant change in births 9 months post-visit, corresponding to a 1.6 percent increase in the aggregate birth cohort. Our
final set of results examine the very long-run impact of persuasion and document the impacts to be on the timing of births rather than on total fertility.
Scope of Project
JEL Classification:
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D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
I12 Health Behavior
J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
N36 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: Latin America; Caribbean
O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
Z12 Cultural Economics: Religion
D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
I12 Health Behavior
J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
N36 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: Latin America; Caribbean
O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
Z12 Cultural Economics: Religion
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