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Directing young dropouts via SMS: evidence from a field experiment

Jérémy Hervelin
Jérémy Hervelin
   | Feb 21, 2022
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Published Online: Feb 21, 2022
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Accepted: Jan 11, 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/izajolp-2022-0001
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© 2022 Jérémy Hervelin, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Descriptive statistics of all youths and dropouts during army days

Characteristics % of all youths % of all dropouts
(1) (2)
Gender (male) 51.11 61.15
Age
  16–17 years old 95.55 75.24
  18–21 years old 3.85 21.14
  22–25 years old 0.60 3.62
School
  Lower secondary 83.95 99.77
  Vocational upper secondary 10.58 0.21
  General upper secondary 5.05 0.02
  Postsecondary 0.42 0.00
Literacy
  Level A 88.44 64.72
  Level B 2.99 13.23
  Level C 1.87 5.62
  Level D 2.66 8.56
  Level E 3.27 7.04
Directed
  Toward any partner public institution 11.79 63.49
  Toward ML agencies 2.19 32.46
Total number of observations 5,514,495 237,110

ITT effects

OLS estimates Entry in agency (0/1)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
Panel A: impact of SMS
SMS – all −0.0097 (0.0143) −0.0100 (0.0144) −0.0092 (0.0152) −0.0090 (0.0154) −0.0091 (0.0160) −0.0093 (0.0162)
Constant (reference: no SMS) 0.1864*** (0.0146) 0.1866*** (0.0146) 0.1860*** (0.0159) 0.1858*** (0.0160) 0.1859*** (0.0166) 0.1860*** (0.0130)
Panel B: impact of SMS according to language style
SMS – formal −0.0003 (0.0165) −0.0000 (0.0168) 0.0016 (0.0170) 0.0020 (0.0174) 0.0026 (0.0179) 0.0019 (0.0181)
SMS – informal −0.0129 (0.0143) −0.0134 (0.0143) −0.0129 (0.0153) −0.0128 (0.0155) −0.0131 (0.0161) −0.0131 (0.0163)
Constant (reference: no SMS) 0.1864*** (0.0146) 0.1866*** (0.0146) 0.1860*** (0.0159) 0.1859*** (0.0160) 0.1859*** (0.0166) 0.1861*** (0.0130)
βSMS Formal = βSMS Informal 0.1599 0.1314 0.1099 0.1107 0.0957 0.1020
N 4,103 4,103 4,103 4,103 4,103 4,103
Displayed information No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Individual characteristics No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Agency characteristics No No No Yes Yes Yes
Location characteristics No No No No Yes Yes
Month fixed effects No No No No No Yes

Control and treatment groups

Group Name
Control No SMS
Treatment 1 SMS – formal style
HELLO {YOUTH FIRSTNAME}, THE {AGENCY NAME} ADVISES YOUTHS ON THEIR PROJECTS. MORE INFORMATION AT {AGENCY ADDRESS}. THE 1ST MEETING DOES NOT REQUIRE AN APPOINTMENT.
Treatment 2 SMS – informal style
HEY {YOUTH FIRSTNAME}, THE {AGENCY NAME} ADVISES YOUTHS ON THEIR PROJECTS. + <SPECIFIC INFO> +. MORE INFORMATION AT {AGENCY ADDRESS}. THE 1ST MEETING DOES NOT REQUIRE AN APPOINTMENT! ☺
eISSN:
2193-9004
Language:
English
Publication timeframe:
Volume Open
Journal Subjects:
Business and Economics, Political Economics, Microeconomics, Macroecomics, Economic Policy, Mathematics and Statistics for Economists, Econometrics
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