Seminar Talent is Everywhere, Opportunity is Not Econometrics and Applied Micro Seminar Add to calendar 2024-11-25 11:00 2024-11-25 12:15 Europe/Rome Talent is Everywhere, Opportunity is Not Seminar Room 3rd Floor Villa La Fonte YYYY-MM-DD Print Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Send by email When 25 November 2024 11:00 - 12:15 CET Where Seminar Room 3rd Floor Villa La Fonte Organised by Department of Economics In this seminar, Pietro Biroli (University of Bologna) will present the paper: 'Talent is Everywhere, Opportunity is Not: Online Role Model Mentoring and Students’ Aspirations'. This paper examines the impact of ORME, a cost-effective and easily scalable online mentoring program for middle school students in Campania, Italy. By connecting students with successful role models who share similar socio-economic backgrounds, ORME aims to enhance students' aspirations, beliefs about the returns to education, and ultimately, their educational outcomes. Through a randomized controlled trial involving five middle schools and over 600 students, we find that participation in ORME significantly improves students' perceptions of effort-related success, increases the alignment between their aspirations and expectations, and enhances school effort. Additionally, students in the treatment group are more likely to prefer and enroll in the academically-oriented school tracks and perform better on standardized tests, particularly in language.Co-authors: Amalia di Girolamo; Giuseppe Sorrenti; Maddalena Totarelli Register Contact(s): Cecile Marie Brière (EUI - Department of Economics) Scientific Organiser(s): Prof. Alessandro Tarozzi (EUI - Department of Economics) Speaker(s): Prof. Pietro Biroli (University of Bologna)