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Abstract:Using a student level randomization, we compare three education-based conditional cash transfers designs: a standard design, a design where part of the monthly transfers are postponed until children have to re-enroll in school, and a design that lowers the reward for attendance but incentivizes graduation and tertiary enrollment. The two non-standard designs significantly increase enrollment rates at both the secondary and tertiary levels while delivering the same attendance gains as the standard design. Postponing some of the attendance transfers to the time of re-enrollment appears particularly effective for the most at-risk children.
In 1999, the city of Bogotá, Colombia launched the Concession School program designed to broaden the coverage and quality of basic education. It consists of a contract between a group of private schools and the public educational system such that private agents provide education for low-income students. This paper tests three main hypotheses concerning the impact of concessions on the quality of education: first, dropout rates are lower in concession schools than in similar public schools; second, other public schools nearby the concession schools have lower dropout rates in comparison with other public schools outside the area of influence; third, test scores from concession schools are higher than scores in similar public schools. The paper presents evidence in favor of the three hypotheses, using propensity score and matching estimators.
An undertaking of this magnitude requires the assistance of many individuals. We are most indebted to the Secretary of Education of Bogota for cooperating with us in this novel experiment, putting up with the constraints created by the research effort, and, of course, financially supporting the entire project. Fedesarrollo, the think tank for which Barrera-Osorio and Perez were working at the execution of the project, provided financial support as well and helped the SED in the design and implementation of the program. While everyone at the SED has been extremely helpful we are particularly indebted to Abel Rodriguez, Catalina Velasco and Margarita Vega. We are indebted to Silvia Restrepo of Fedesarrollo for the logistical assistance and for the data collection. Camilo Dominguez has done an excellent job as a research assistant during the entire project, and we thank Carlos Ospino and Lucas Higuera for their help at key points in the effort. We thank Sendhil Mullainathan and Mario Sanchez for their comments and assistance, and thank the seminar participants at the World Bank's Human Development Network, Columbia University's Department of Economics, NBER Summer Education Meeting, Rutgers University's Department of Economics, New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, the LACEA Impact Evaluation Network and the CIPREE/BREAD Conference for their helpful question and comments. All errors are of course (and unfortunately) our responsibility. Please send correspondence to Leigh Linden at leigh.linden@columbia.edu. The opinions expressed in this document reflect only the views of the authors and in no way reflect the opinions of the World Bank, the Colombian Ministry of Education, or the National Bureau of Economic Research.NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications. ABSTRACTWe evaluate multiple variants of a commonly used intervention to boost education in developing countries --the conditional cash transfer (CCT) --with a student level randomization that allows us to generate intra-family and peer-network variation. We test three treatments: a basic CCT treatment based on school attendance, a savings treatment that postpones a bulk of the cash transfer due to good attendance to just before children have to reenroll, and a tertiary treatment where some of the transfers are conditional on students' graduation and tertiary enrollment rather than attendance. On average, the combined incentives increase attendance, pass rates, enrollment, graduation rates, and matriculation to tertiary institutions. Changing the timing of the payments does not change attendance rates relative to the basic treatment but does significantly increase enrollment rates at both the secondary and tertiary levels. Incentives for graduation and matriculation are particularly effective, increasing attendance and enrollment at secondary and tertiary levels more t...
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