Dr Lucia Corno, Cattolica University

"Norm Replacement and Information. A Field Experiment on Ending Female Genital Cutting"
Wednesday, 11 October. 2:30 pm
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Abstract

Female Genital Cutting (FGC) is an extremely harmful tradition that persists in many regions worldwide, imposing severe adverse effects on women’s health and human capital accumulation. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of two interventions designed to reduce the incidence of FGC among adolescent girls in Sierra Leone. In this setting, FGC is part of a traditional initiation ceremony called bondo, which marks a girl’s transition into womanhood. We randomly assigned 150 villages to three experimental arms: (i) a control group; (ii) an information arm, where we held community-wide discussions on the differences in outcomes between cut and uncut girls (e.g., in terms of health); and (iii) a norm[1]replacement arm, aimed at substituting the traditional ritual with an alternative that does not involve cutting (“bondo without cutting”). We measure girls’ FGC status both through mothers’ reports and through direct observation by medical personnel during health checks. Three years after the intervention, both treatments resulted in a 24%-23% decrease in the joint probability that girls were not cut. Our results underline the importance of designing culturally sensitive policies when trying to change harmful traditions.

Paper "Norm Replacement and Information. A Field Experiment on ending Female Genital Cutting" by Lucia Corno and Eliana La Ferrara.

Bio

I am Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and Finance at Cattolica University and Executive Director and co-Founder of LEAP, the Laboratory for Effective Anti-poverty Policies at Bocconi University.
Previously, I was  assistant professor at Queen Mary University in London and post-doctoral researcher at University College London (UCL).
Most of my research focuses on understanding constraints for economic development in low income countries, combining empirical/theoretical analysis and randomized field experiments.
I recently got an ERC Starting Grant to study harmful traditional practices in Africa (e.g. child marriage, female genital cutting and breast-ironing) and how to design effective policies to reduce their prevalence

For further information, please contact business-school-research@glasgow.ac.uk

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First published: 6 October 2023

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