Recent research demonstrates that imperfect information about returns to education distorts schooling investments. Questions remain about what information is missing in different settings and for whom such information is most critical. We conducted a field experiment to investigate whether Grade 8 children increase effort after learning about financial aid for post-secondary schooling; whether responses are larger for high or low ability students; or when parents as well as children learn about financial aid. We randomly assigned over 6,000 Chilean 8 th graders in poor urban schools to information treatment or control groups, with half of the treatment group watching an information DVD at school (Student group) and the other half receiving this DVD to watch at home (Family group). Combining survey with administrative data, we find substantial improvements in financial aid knowledge in treated schools and a 14% reduction in absenteeism, but no effects on 8 th Grade scores or 9 th Grade enrolment. Students with higher baseline grades appear to drive most of the significant responses. Surprisingly, although Family group parents report significantly better knowledge of DVD content, using both experimental variation and non-experimental methods we show that watching at home has no larger impact on child effort than watching at school, at least for students likely to choose to watch the DVD. These results suggest that while educational inputs can improve after learning more about the higher education production function, particularly for higher ability students, such information is insufficient for improving educational outcomes, even when parents are involved.

We implemented a randomized field experiment that tested ways to stimulate savings by international migrants in their origin country. We find that migrants value and take advantage of opportunities to exert greater control over financial activities in their home countries. In partnership with a Salvadoran bank, we offered U.S.-based migrants bank accounts in El Salvador. We randomly varied migrant control over El Salvador-based savings by offering different types of accounts across treatment groups. Migrants offered the greatest degree of control accumulated the most savings at the partner bank, compared to others offered less or no control over savings. Impacts are likely to represent increases in total savings: there is no evidence that savings increases were simply reallocated from other savings mechanisms. Enhanced control over home-country savings does not affect remittances sent home by migrants.

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Until 1999 children born out of wedlock in Chile had di¤erent child support rights to those born to married couples. I interpret this law change as an increase in bargaining power of woman in cohabiting relationships. Using a panel of cross sectional data I …nd a decrease of 1 percentage point in the probability of working for men, and an increase of 2 percentage points in school attendance of children between 14 and 18 and boys between 0 and 5 years old. These results provide evidence against the unitary model as well as against the Nash bargaining model. The labor market outcomes support a model where the reduction in men's relative bargaining power is understood as a tax on wages: there is a proportion of income that is not allocated according to the money earner's preferences.

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