by
Rui Zhu, CKGSB
Wednesday, November 25, 2020 | 4:00pm - 5:30pm | ZOOM, Room 333
Abstract
Reading resources are scarce for children in rural China and other developing countries. We conduct a large-scale field experiment to examine whether providing in-class book corners with extracurricular books to rural Chinese children can improve their academic performance and psychological well-being. The results reveal that book corners improve both test scores for Chinese and certain psychological outcomes. Furthermore, raising parents’ awareness of the importance of reading and training teachers on how to teach reading can both have beneficial effects on academic performance, but not psychological outcomes. Finally, adding reading classes to schools’ curriculum has an unexpected negative effect on both academic and psychological outcomes. We also demonstrate that the efficacy of these interventions depends on the characteristics of the students, such as their prior academic performance and age.
