 The Future in Mind: Aspirations and Long-term Outcomes in Rural EthiopiaTanguy Bernard, Stefan Dercon, Kate Orkin, Alemayehu Taffesse and Giulio Schinaia Post-Print from HAL Abstract: Aspirations have been posited to condition the future-oriented choices of individuals and thus can play a role in the persistence of poverty or the effort to break out of it. In a randomised control trial in remote, rural Ethiopia, we assess the effectiveness of an intervention seeking to change how poor people perceive their future opportunities, alter their aspirations and, through that, modify their investment decisions. A treatment group was shown video documentaries about the lives of individuals from similar communities who escaped poverty through their own efforts and, as such, can serve as role models. Five years after the screening took place, the treated households increased future-oriented investments in agriculture and in children's education. The results can be explained by the increase in aspirations in terms of lifetime goals. Overall, this research uniquely provides evidence that a light-touch behavioural intervention can have persistent economic impacts on a poor population. Keywords: Investment; Role models; Aspirations (search for similar items in EconPapers) Published in CEPR Discussion Paper, 2023 There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04513540 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Post-Print from HAL |
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