Description:

Jimmy Lee (Northwestern): "Costly Communication and Miscoordination in Agricultural Households: Experimental Evidence from Liberia"

Abstract: Costly communication inhibits coordination in households. In a randomized evaluation of a school-based agricultural extension program in Liberia, this paper shows how costly communication leads households to miscoordinate responses to new information and restrict improvements in adolescents’ education and livelihoods. In a random subset of program schools, I randomize households into two informational treatments. The first provides promotional videos to students’ elders. The second, in addition, reveals elders’ expectations to students, which indicate elders anticipate positive program impact on their farming skills. After one year, many program effects are only detected when information is provided. While videos are effective in changing some household decisions, the revelation treatment improves additional outcomes, including students’ farm choices, incomes, school enrollment, and food security. Persistent effects of revelation imply costly communication within the household. I provide evidence that revelation improves coordination between students and elders, interpret the results in a household model with costly communication and asymmetric decision rights between students and elders, and test its implications.