Empowering Adolescents to Transform Schools: Lessons from a Behavioral Targeting

Sule Alan and Elif Kubilay

American Economic Review, 2025, vol. 115, issue 2, 365-407

Abstract: We test the effectiveness of a behavioral program grounded in the idea that status granting and self-persuasion might yield a robust behavioral change in disadvantaged adolescents. We enlist socially connected senior middle school students with high emotional intelligence as "student-teachers" and entrust them with delivering a curriculum to their junior peers. The program empowers student-teachers, leading them to improve their social environment. It reduces disciplinary incidents and antisocial behavior among student-teachers and their friendship networks. The intervention significantly enhances the likelihood of admission to selective high schools for student-teachers, offering a cost-effective way to help disadvantaged adolescents escape neighborhood disadvantages.

JEL-codes: H52 I21 I24 I28 J13 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1257/aer.20240374

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