Please use this form to submit your study for inclusion into our database. It will be checked by a member of the Innovation Growth Lab team, who may be in contact to ask for more information. Your email address * Your name * Title * The name of the study Short summary This trial measures the impact of an edutainment program specifically designed to promote entrepreneurship among young adult viewers in Egypt. A brief description of the project's goals and its current state Abstract <p>The impact of an edutainment program broadcast on a popular Egyptian television channel and specifically designed to promote entrepreneurship among young adult viewers is measured. A randomized controlled trial following a non-symmetric encouragement design is implemented to measure the impact of the intervention on viewers’ attitudes towards self-employment, knowledge of the Egyptian entrepreneurial ecosystem, professional aspirations, and professional choices. The design allows us to identify the importance of peer effects within groups of friends. Several conclusions are reached. First, while the show had some impact on viewers’ attitudes toward self-employment, its impact is much more limited on the other three sets of outcomes. The impact of the intervention is particularly important on respondents’ gender-related beliefs associated with self-employment. Second, we find some evidence of complex peer effects, alternately amplifying and mitigating the direct effect of a respondent’s exposure to the intervention. Third, while some of the intervention’s impacts seem to be welfare-improving, others are more ambiguous from a welfare perspective. These results emphasize the importance of the nature of the messages conveyed by media programs, the way in which these are conveyed, as well as how they can be perceived by a heterogeneous population.</p> The full abstract of the study, if available Links https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12391 Links to any published papers and related discussions Authors * Affiliations Academic and other institutes that the authors of the study are members of Delivery partner Organisations involved in delivering the trial, if appropriate Year Year Year199419951996199719981999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026 Month MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Day Day12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031 Journal Journal publishing the study, if available Publication stage * Working Paper Published Ongoing Research Forthcoming Discussion Paper Research theme * Entrepreneurship Innovation Business Growth Country Country or countries where this study took place. Topics What sort of topics does the study cover? Sample attributes Hypotheses / research question How does a large-scale edutainment program change viewers’ attitudes and perceptions with respect to entrepreneurship? Sample Trial population and sample selection Young adults aged 18 to 35 that watch TV at least from time to time and are interested in starting a business. Mostly men (83%). Number of treatment groups Size of treatment groups Size of control group Unit of analysis Clustered? Yes No Cluster details Trial attributes Treatment description Patercipants were shown 13 episodes in which 14 contestants face, in teams, a series of challenges to test their entrepreneurial skills. Each episode includes educational content amidst entertaining content, stressing the importance of various entrepreneurial skills, like planning or marketing, and important business concepts, like business plans, profits or customers. Contestants are recruited from various sociodemographic groups (in terms of gender, ethnicity, religion, region, etc.) to ensure that viewers can relate and emotionally connect to at least one of them. In parallel to the show, networking events are held throughout the country in collaboration with partner business support organisations, to bridge the gap between the show and the real world and provide support to viewers that take the plunge and attempt to start a business. A programme website provides information on the show and these partner organisations. Additionally, text messages are sent weekly to remind participants to watch the show, browse the website and test their knowledge on the show. Rounds of data collection Baseline data collection and method The sample is constituted of a representative subset of a very large population of young individuals in Egypt who have some interest in entrepreneurship. Indeed, a randomly generated set of mobile phone numbers was called to select a sample and collect baseline information. In order to have a sample that was as representative as possible of the intervention’s target group, only individuals who matched the following criteria were included: a/ be aged between 18 and 35; b/ watch TV at least from time to time; c/ be interested in starting a business. Respondents were asked to provide the contact details of up to three of their friends meeting the inclusion criteria, to constitute cluster of friends and measure peer effects. Data collection method and data collected Evaluation Outcome variables <p>Perceptions of entrepreneurship, knowledge about self-employment, professional career aspirations, and career choices</p> Results <p>The show positively impacted gender-related beliefs, with viewers more likely to agree that women are able to successfully run their own businesses. This effect is particularly strong for those from sociodemographic categories who held more discriminatory beliefs to start with - men with few years of education. At the same time, viewers reported that the level of competition and gender discrimination against women in entrepreneurship is not as high as they initially thought. It is unclear, though, if this is the result of a distortion caused by the show not conveying a representative image of what it is like to start and run a business, or a convergence of viewers’ prior beliefs to reality. The show had no effect on the perception of the importance of other barriers to entrepreneurship, like lack of funding, lack of skills or complicated country regulations, that were already perceived as more hindering before the show. The show did not improve the knowledge about the business support ecosystemthe likelihood of viewers choosing self-employment as their preferred career option or taking any steps to set up a business.</p> Intervention costs Not available. Cost benefit ratio Reference Barsoum, G., Crépon, B., Gardiner, D., Michel, B., & Parienté, W. , 2022. Evaluating the Impact of Entrepreneurship Edutainment in Egypt: An Experimental Approach. Economica, 89(353), 82-109. Citation for use in academic references
