Edutainment Radio, Women's Status and Primary School Participation: Evidence from Cambodia

Maria Cheung

No 2012:5, Research Papers in Economics from Stockholm University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper investigates whether exposure to "edutainment" (education - entertainment) radio leads to improved women's status and primary school participation. Specifically, I examine a popular radio station focusing on gender issues in Cambodia. To identify the effect, I exploit plausible exogenous variation in over-the-air signal strength between radio transmitters and villages within a district, as well as the variation across time and space in exposure. Using individual data, both approaches show that the exposure had a significant impact on behavior by raising the women's decision-making power within the household and increasing children's primary school attendance. The latter impact is also reflected by higher primary school enrollment three years after exposure. The impact was found in both poor and rural house- holds confirming that radio is an effective vehicle to transmit information in the more marginalized areas. Suggestive evidence shows that the exposure also affected attitudes towards domestic violence and the prevalence of son preference which is a stepping stone towards changing socially constructed gender norms.

Keywords: Radio exposure; information; gender; women's status; schooling; enrollment; attitude; behavior; edutainment; Cambodia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 I25 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2012-04-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-lab and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2012_0005

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