Prof. Eliana La Ferrara

Using National Television to Boost Ugandan Agricultural Productivity

While at CES, Eliana La Ferrara will collaborate with Ritwika Sen and Christopher Udry on the project “Seeding Innovation Through Reality TV.” The project investigates whether agri-edutainment programs broadcast on national television can help meet the informational needs of farmers in Uganda, where agricultural productivity remains far below its potential. Television may offer a promising alternative to traditional extension services because it can convey technical information to audiences with relatively low literacy levels and can be distributed at scale at low marginal cost. It may also help mitigate gender gaps in access to agricultural information if television viewership is less gender-imbalanced than access to conventional extension services. Leveraging the rollout of a makeover-style reality television program focused on farming as a business in Uganda in 2022/23, the project measures the show’s causal impact and cost-effectiveness in diffusing recommended agricultural techniques. It also studies how farmers learn about new technologies and improved practices, and how information is transmitted through agricultural communities.

Ms. La Ferrara’s research focuses on Development Economics and Political Economics, particularly on the role of social factors in economic development. Methodologically, she combines fieldwork, rigorous empirical analysis, and microeconomic theory to address questions at the intersection of economics and other social sciences. Her work has been published in leading economic journals, including the American Economic Review, Econometrica, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Eliana La Ferrara is a Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. She is a Past President of the Econometric Society, of the European Economic Association and of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development, as well as being the Program Director of Development Economics for the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Ms. Eliana La Ferrara is also a J-PAL Affiliate, a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Economic Association, an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the CESifo Research Network. Her PhD in Economics is from Harvard University.