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Purpose: Different forms of social learning have been explored to act as complements to conventional extension services. This paper examines the possibility of using vocational training to high school students who in turn transfer information to their parents. Design/Methodology/approach: We conduct a randomized control trial in nine communities in rural Nicaragua and evaluate changes in the knowledge of agricultural technologies, access to credit markets, and technology adoption for parents and students using a difference-in-difference approach. Findings: Our results show improvements in knowledge-based outcomes for students and parents, and increased access to credit markets and adoption of agricultural technologies by parents. Practical Implications: Given the increase in schooling across developing countries, our results suggest that programs designed around within-family information diffusion can complement more conventional forms of agricultural extension. Theoretical Implications: Little explored channels of information exchange can act as complements or substitutes of conventional extension models, where those are weak or non-existent. Originality/Value: This paper is one of the first to explore and evaluate the teacher-student-parent of information exchange as an alternative for agricultural technology diffusion.

Different forms of social learning have been explored to act as complements to conventional extension services. This paper examines the possibility of using vocational training to high school students who in turn transfer information to their parents. We conduct a randomized control trial in nine communities in rural Nicaragua and evaluate changes in the knowledge of agricultural technologies, access to credit markets, and technology adoption for parents and students using a difference-in-difference approach. Our results show improvements in knowledge-based outcomes for students and parents, and increased access to credit markets and adoption of agricultural technologies by parents. Given the increase in schooling across developing countries, our results suggest that programs designed around within-family information diffusion can complement more conventional forms of agricultural extension. Little explored channels of information exchange can act as complements or substitutes of conventional extension models, where those are weak or non-existent. This paper is one of the first to explore and evaluate the teacher-student-parent of information exchange as an alternative for agricultural technology diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyze and decompose the gap between White and non-White students' test scores observed in the Brazilian National Evaluation System of Basic Education (SAEB)—2015. To do so, proficiency equations were estimated for each student race group (White, Brown, Black, and Indigenous) using the recentered influence function method, which generalizes the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition to any point in the grade distribution. The proficiency of White students is higher than the other groups of students, and this difference increases throughout the distribution. Black students exhibit the lowest average test score, behind the Indigenous and then the Brown students. At the lower and middle levels of the math test score distribution, the racial gap is mainly due to the characteristics effect, which represents the part of the proficiency differential that is explained by the differences in observable characteristics of students. However, the gap at the upper level of grade distribution is mainly due the structural effect, which results from non-observable issues, such as discrimination and stereotype threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]