American Economic Journal:
Economic Policy
ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)
When the Effects of Informational Interventions Are Driven by Salience—Evidence from School Parents in Brazil
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
(pp. 101–34)
Abstract
Do informational interventions work because they lead subjects to merely update beliefs in the right direction or, to a large extent, because they increase the salience of the decision they target? We randomly assign parents to either an information group that receives text messages with weekly data on their child's attendance and school effort or a salience group that receives messages that try to redirect their attention without child-specific information. While information has large impacts on attendance, test scores, and grade promotion relative to the control group, outcomes in the salience group improve by at least as much.Citation
Lichand, Guilherme, Nina Cunha, Ricardo A. Madeira, and Eric Bettinger. 2026. "When the Effects of Informational Interventions Are Driven by Salience—Evidence from School Parents in Brazil." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 18 (3): 101–34. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20220777Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- C93 Field Experiments
- D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
- D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
- I21 Analysis of Education
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- O12 Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development