IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/restat/v106y2024i2p334-351.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Role Models in Movies: The Impact of Queen of Katwe on Students’ Educational Attainment

Author

Listed:
  • Emma Riley

    (University of Michigan)

Abstract

This paper presents experimental evidence on the impact of a role model on secondary school students’ exam performance in Uganda. Students were individually randomized to see either a movie featuring a female role model, Queen of Katwe, or to see a placebo movie. I find that treatment with the role model immediately before an important national exam leads to students performing better on their exams, particularly in math, with effects largest for female students. Female students exposed to the role model are more likely to remain in education in subsequent years, closing the gender gap with their male peers.

Suggested Citation

  • Emma Riley, 2024. "Role Models in Movies: The Impact of Queen of Katwe on Students’ Educational Attainment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(2), pages 334-351, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:106:y:2024:i:2:p:334-351
    DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01153
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01153
    Download Restriction: Access to PDF is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1162/rest_a_01153?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ingar Haaland & Christopher Roth & Johannes Wohlfart, 2023. "Designing Information Provision Experiments," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 3-40, March.
    2. Anandi Mani & Emma Riley, 2019. "Social networks, role models, peer effects, and aspirations," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-120, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Aregawi G. Gebremariam & Elisabetta Lodigiani & Giacomo Pasini, 2017. "The impact of Ethiopian Productive Safety-net Program on children's educational aspirations," Working Papers 2017:26, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    4. Sandrine Mesplé-Somps and & Björn Nilsson, 2020. "Role models and migration intentions," Working Paper 519bfbde-8d2e-4e86-bd62-0, Agence française de développement.
    5. Abu Siddique & Michael Vlassopoulos & Yves Zenou, 2024. "Leveraging edutainment and social networks to foster interethnic harmony," IFS Working Papers W24/20, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    6. Elijah Kipkech Kipchumba & Catherine Porter & Danila Serra & Munshi Sulaiman, 2021. "Infuencing youths' aspirations and gender attitudes through role models: Evidence from Somali schools," Working Papers 20210224-002, Texas A&M University, Department of Economics.
    7. Cecchi, Francesco & Garcia, Adriana & Lensink, Robert & Wydick, Bruce, 2022. "Aspirational hope, dairy farming practices, and milk production: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial in Bolivia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    8. Kipchumba, Elijah & Porter, Catherine & Serra, Danila & Sulaiman, Munshi, 2024. "The Impact of Role Models on Youths' Aspirations, Gender Attitudes and Education in Somalia," IZA Discussion Papers 17261, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Mehmood, Sultan & Naseer, Shaheen & Chen, Daniel L., 2024. "Altruism in governance: Insights from randomized training for Pakistan's junior ministers," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    10. Agurto, M. & Bazan, M. & Hari, S. & Sarangi, S., 2021. "Women in Engineering: The Role of Role Models," GLO Discussion Paper Series 975, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    11. Cullen, Claire & Joshi, Sarthak & Vecci, Joseph & Talbot-Jones, Julia, 2024. "Female Empowerment and Male Backlash: Experimental Evidence from India," IZA Discussion Papers 17450, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Chung, Bobby W., 2020. "Peers’ parents and educational attainment: The exposure effect," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    13. Ghada Barsoum & Bruno Crépon & Drew Gardiner & Bastien Michel & William Parienté, 2022. "Evaluating the Impact of Entrepreneurship Edutainment in Egypt: An Experimental Approach," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(353), pages 82-109, January.
    14. G.T. Abate & Tanguy Bernard & Simrin Makhija & David J. Spielman, 2019. "Accelerating technical change through video-mediated agricultural extension: Evidence from Ethiopia," Working Papers hal-02879823, HAL.
    15. So Yoon Ahn & Youjin Hahn & Semee Yoon, 2021. "Can New Learning Opportunities Reshape Gender Attitudes for Girls?: Field Evidence from Tanzania," Working Papers 2021-046, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    16. Marcela Ibañez Diaz & Menusch Khadjavi & Christina Martini, 2021. "Community Aspirations and Cooperation: Prescriptive vs. Descriptive Role Models," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 309650, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:106:y:2024:i:2:p:334-351. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: The MIT Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://direct.mit.edu/journals .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.