Occupational Aspirations and Investments in Education: Experimental Evidence from Cambodia

70 Pages Posted: 7 Sep 2023

See all articles by Esther Gehrke

Esther Gehrke

Wageningen University

Friederike Lenel

University of Goettingen (Göttingen)

Claudia Schupp

Technical University Munich

Date Written: 2023

Abstract

Students in low-income contexts often lack guidance in their career decisions which can lead to a misallocation of educational investments. We report on a randomized field experiment conducted with 1715 students in rural Cambodia and show that a half-day workshop designed to support adolescents in developing occupational aspirations increased educational investments. We document substantial heterogeneity in treatment effects by baseline student performance. While the workshop increased schooling efforts of high-performing students, treated low-performing students reduced their educational investments. We develop a simple model that explains why an information intervention can affect educational aspirations and investments in opposing directions.

Keywords: aspirations, career guidance, education, field experiment

JEL Classification: C930, D830, D900, I210, O150

Suggested Citation

Gehrke, Esther and Lenel, Friederike and Schupp, Claudia, Occupational Aspirations and Investments in Education: Experimental Evidence from Cambodia (2023). CESifo Working Paper No. 10608, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4553149 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4553149

Esther Gehrke (Contact Author)

Wageningen University ( email )

P.O. Box 47
6700 AA
Netherlands

Friederike Lenel

University of Goettingen (Göttingen) ( email )

Wilhelmsplatz 1
Göttingen, 37073
Germany

Claudia Schupp

Technical University Munich ( email )

Munich
Germany

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