Role models among us: Experimental evidence on inspirations and gender disparities set in stones

Prateek Chandra Bhan and Jinglin Wen

No 39, Working Papers from University of Konstanz, Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality. Perceptions, Participation and Policies"

Abstract: Historical monuments and statues mediate a conversation between the past and present. In this randomised controlled trial, we test the presence of such communications and their consequences. Focusing on a cohort of primary school students in India, we study the role modelling effect of historical statues. Students in the treatment group were exposed to a short virtual tour of otherwise locally present yet then inaccessible statues due to the Covid pandemic. The placebo group watched a video on the same role models, comprising of images of these role models instead of their statue. There was a third pure control group. Immediately after the 6-minute intervention, students watching the treatment video performed better than the placebo and control groups in a memory test. We detect improvements in treated students' academic performance after a month, which are sustained after 6-months. The treatment affects only boys suggesting that the lack of female role models and their statues may attribute to this gender gap in academic performance.

Keywords: Statues; role models; aspirations; education; gender; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D10 D90 I25 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:cexwps:301858

DOI: 10.48787/kops/352-2-1v78ujgxx8kbb3

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