Girls Scholarship Program (GSP) Flashcards
experimental design
randomised evaluation of a merit award for grade 6 girls in Kenya
top 15% of girls in program schools received a prize for school fees and supplies over two years
- meaningful sum of money in a poor rural setting
research question
does this incentive to learn affect school performance?
- potentially by changing parents’ incentives to invest in their kids’ schooling or kids’ effort choices
what impact do incentives have on test scores and other measures of school performance?
what impact does winning have on later schooling choices and outcomes? does it make it more likely that winners stay in school?
theoretical perspectives: why might incentives have an impact?
extrinsic motivation (immediate gratification) vs. intrinsic motivation (love of learning)
- short-run incentives bring returns to education sooner
- do cash awards erode the love of learning?
greater teacher effort
- reduces absenteeism, altruism, community recognition
parent encouragement/pressure
community mobilisation to support the program and changing local social norms
- does this change attitudes to education or individual attitudes?
GSP empirical impacts
positive and sizeable with distribution of test scores shifted to the right
- 0.15-0.18 sd on average
average performers started working harder to get the scholarship and the distribution changed
top performers typically already doing their best so couldn’t work much harder
difficulties in Teso district
tragic lightning strike
difficulty of working in Teso
- less interest in working with NGOs and education/health development programs
positive effects therefore concentrated in Busia (0.25sd gains) but are 0 in Teso
girls’ scholarships and boys’ performance
some positive effects for boys (roughly half the size at 0.15) even if they were not eligible
- evidence of within-classroom externalities?
worst fears that boys would be demoralised is not realised
GSP effects in Busia
increase in teacher attendance by 7 percentage points (5 percentage points overall), girls’ school participation by 3 percentage points
no significant changes in study habits, work at home or attitudes towards education/intrinsic motivation
- things could have been measured differently but no huge evidence
- slight positive changes but not that large overall
possible questions/limitations
will educational impacts last? were they just trying harder or did they learn something?
can this promote the empowerment of women and changes in social norms about girls’ education?
in the long-run, will cash incentives destroy the love of learning?
issue with looking at the impact of winning the award
hard to evaluate the impact of winning since winners are not randomly chosen
- function of academic test score performance, which is expected to have an effect on later school attainment
winners typically do get more schooling than those who didn’t win
tracking findings 5 years later
GSP winners have additional years of schooling (0.19)
girls in Busia treatment schools have higher average test scores (0.21), attain additional schooling and have different political attitudes
- 29% more likely to go to secondary schooling
impact on female autonomy
parents less likely to choose spouses for treatment school girls
large reduction of 29% in stated support for domestic violence
impact on political views/involvement
more informed, skeptical and dissatisfied
information seeking
- more days reading a newspaper, 30% increase in preferences for the elite newspaper the daily nation
gain in political knowledge about 0.12sd
0 effect on support for democracy
