Does Information Lead to More Active Citizenship? Evidence from an Education Intervention in Rural Kenya

• We study a large-scale intervention promoting citizen action toward improving learning.
• We employ a post-treatment, matched village research design in two Kenyan districts.
• No evidence of a treatment effect on private or public citizen actions.
• We identify key conditions necessary for information to generate citizen activism.

SummaryWe study a randomized educational intervention in 550 households in 26 matched villages in two Kenyan districts. The intervention provided parents with information about their children’s performance on literacy and numeracy tests, and materials about how to become more involved in improving their children’s learning. We find the provision of such information had no discernible impact on either private or collective action. In discussing these findings, we articulate a framework linking information provision to changes in citizens’ behavior, and assess the present intervention at each step. Future research on information provision should pay greater attention to this framework.