Inputs, Incentives, and Complementarities in Education: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania

Serie

• NBER Working Papers

Resumen

• We present results from a large-scale randomized experiment across 350 schools in Tanzania that studied the impact of providing schools with (a) unconditional grants, (b) teacher incentives based on student performance, and (c) both of the above. After two years, we find (a) no impact on student test scores from providing school grants, (b) some evidence of positive effects from teacher incentives, and (c) significant positive effects from providing both programs. Most importantly, we find strong evidence of complementarities between the two programs, with the effect of joint provision being significantly greater than the sum of the individual effects. Our results suggest that combining spending on school inputs (which is the default policy) with improved teacher incentives could substantially increase the cost-effectiveness of public spending on education.

autores

• Manda, Constantine
• Mbiti, Isaac
• Rajani, Rakesh
• Romero, Mauricio
• Schipper, Youdi

fecha de publicación

• 2018-07

Área temática

• C93 - Experimentos de campo
• H52 - Gasto público de la administración y educación
• I21 - Análisis de la educación
• M52 - Retribución y métodos de retribución y sus efectos
• O15 - Recursos humanos; Desarrollo humano; Distribución de la renta; Migraciones

Enfoque geográfico

• Africa  Continent
• United Republic of Tanzania  Country

Issue

• 24876