Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This paper examines the short-term impacts of a labor-intensive public works program on household welfare and economic prospects. Using a community-level randomized control trial approach, the paper finds that the public works program targeted at youth in Sierra Leone successfully provided temporary employment to youth characterized by low educational attainment. Cash income among program participants increased by nearly three times relative to the control counterparts, and treatment households experienced a 29 percent rise in monthly income. There is also evidence of significant re-optimization of household labor allocation and expenditure in response to program participation. First, there is an overall crowding-in of labor force participation by household members beyond program participation. Second, the extra income is spent partly to improve the quality of life and partly to secure future earnings. The treated households raised spending on food, medicines, and assets. They also expanded utilization of health services. Meanwhile, the consumption of temptation goods was greater, albeit by a small amount, and the rate of absenteeism among students was higher. To secure future earnings, the treated households set up new businesses: they were nearly four times more likely than the control households to set up new household enterprises. They also boosted their participation in informal savings groups and their investments in their homes and existing businesses. These results demonstrate that public works interventions have considerable potential as productive safety nets in post-conflict settings such as Sierra Leone. They can provide immediate income support, but also open avenues for investment in the productive capacity of poor households.

Communities and Human Settlements. --- Employment. --- Health Monitoring and Evaluation. --- Health, Nutrition and Population. --- Housing and Human Habitats. --- Impact Evaluation. --- Poverty Monitoring and Analysis. --- Poverty Reduction. --- Public Works. --- Rural Poverty Reduction. --- Safety Nets and Transfers. --- Safety Nets. --- Social Protection. --- Social Protections and Labor. --- Youth.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Empirical literature on digital technologies for student learning is generally unable to identify separately whether learning gains arise from reciprocity in response to the gift of a valuable gadget (the 'gadget effect') or from increasing exposure to relevant materials (the 'content effect'). This paper attempts to disentangle these mechanisms using a randomized control trial in junior secondary schools in Lagos, Nigeria. It estimates three contrasts: (i) the effect of just receiving an eReader with non-curriculum content, (ii) the marginal effects of receiving an eReader with curriculum text books, and (iii) the marginal effects (relative to ii) of receiving curriculum with supplementary current and remedial instructional content.The findings show that six to eight months of exposure to eReaders led to modest positive impacts on learning, but only if the devices had curriculum material and were filling input gaps resulting from a lack of textbooks. Consistent with other recent findings, even six to eight months of exposure to eReaders with non-curriculum recreational material reduced student learning outcomes. These results demonstrate that the promise of digital solutions to improve learning depends largely on the extent that these solutions address unmet access to instructional material. The paper also finds that exposure to eReaders improved student retention. However, these impacts are not very robust and could be achieved much more cost-effectively through the provision of information about the economic returns to educationbut only if the devices had curriculum material and were filling input gaps resulting from a lack of textbooks. Consistent with other recent findings, even six to eight months of exposure to eReaders with non-curriculum recreational material reduced student learning outcomes. These results demonstrate that the promise of digital solutions to improve learning depends largely on the extent that these solutions address unmet access to instructional material. The paper also finds that exposure to eReaders improved student retention. However, these impacts are not very robust and could be achieved much more cost-effectively through the provision of information about the economic returns to educationbut only if the devices had curriculum material and were filling input gaps resulting from a lack of textbooks. Consistent with other recent findings, even six to eight months of exposure to eReaders with non-curriculum recreational material reduced student learning outcomes. These results demonstrate that the promise of digital solutions to improve learning depends largely on the extent that these solutions address unmet access to instructional material. The paper also finds that exposure to eReaders improved student retention. However, these impacts are not very robust and could be achieved much more cost-effectively through the provision of information about the economic returns to educationeven six to eight months of exposure to eReaders with non-curriculum recreational material reduced student learning outcomes. These results demonstrate that the promise of digital solutions to improve learning depends largely on the extent that these solutions address unmet access to instructional material. The paper also finds that exposure to eReaders improved student retention. However, these impacts are not very robust and could be achieved much more cost-effectively through the provision of information about the economic returns to educationeven six to eight months of exposure to eReaders with non-curriculum recreational material reduced student learning outcomes. These results demonstrate that the promise of digital solutions to improve learning depends largely on the extent that these solutions address unmet access to instructional material. The paper also finds that exposure to eReaders improved student retention. However, these impacts are not very robust and could be achieved much more cost-effectively through the provision of information about the economic returns to educationThe paper also finds that exposure to eReaders improved student retention. However, these impacts are not very robust and could be achieved much more cost-effectively through the provision of information about the economic returns to educationThe paper also finds that exposure to eReaders improved student retention. However, these impacts are not very robust and could be achieved much more cost-effectively through the provision of information about the economic returns to education.

Readers (Adult)

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

"Using 2005 firm level data for 26 countries in Eastern and Central Europe, this paper estimates performance gaps between male and female-owned businesses, while controlling for location by industry and country. The findings show that female entrepreneurs have a significantly smaller scale of operations (as measured by sales revenues) and are less efficient in terms of total factor productivity, although the difference is small. However, women entrepreneurs generate the same amount of profit per unit of revenue as men. Although both male and female entrepreneurs in the region are sub-optimally small, women's returns to scale are significantly larger than men's, implying that women would gain more from increasing their scale. The authors argue that the main reasons for the sub-optimal size of female-owned firms are that they are both capital constrained and concentrated in industries with small firms. "--World Bank web site.

Businesswomen --- Women-owned business enterprises

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This study evaluates the impacts of low-cost, performance-based incentives in Tanzanian secondary schools. Results from a two-phase randomized trial show that incentives for teachers led to modest average improvements in student achievement across different subjects. Further, withdrawing incentives did not lead to a "discouragement effect" (once incentives were withdrawn, student performance did not fall below pre-baseline levels). Rather, impacts on learning were sustained beyond the intervention period. However, these incentives may have exacerbated learning inequality within and across schools. Increases in learning were concentrated among initially better-performing schools and students. At the same time, learning outcomes may have decreased for schools and students that were lower performing at baseline. Finally, the study finds that incentivizing students without simultaneously incentivizing teachers did not produce observable learning gains.

Education --- Education For All --- Education Reform and Management --- Effective Schools and Teachers --- Incentive Program --- Learning Outcomes --- Secondary Education --- Student Achievement --- Student Learning --- Teacher Incentives

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

A textbook provision program in Sierra Leone demonstrates how volatility in the flow of government-provided learning inputs to schools can induce storage of these inputs by school administrators to smooth future consumption. This process in turn leads to low current utilization of inputs for student learning. A randomized trial of a public program providing textbooks to primary schools had modest positive impacts on teacher behavior but no impacts on student performance. In many treatment schools, student access to textbooks did not actually increase because a large majority of the books were stored rather than distributed to students. At the same time, the propensity to save books was positively correlated with uncertainty on the part of head teachers regarding government transfers of books. The evidence suggests that schools that have high uncertainty with respect to future transfers are more likely to store a high proportion of current transfers. These results show that reducing uncertainty in school input flows could result in higher current input use for student learning. For effective program design, public policy programs must take forward-looking behavior among intermediate actors into account.

Education --- Education for All --- Impact Evaluation --- Primary Education --- Secondary Education --- Smoothing --- Teaching and Learning --- Tertiary Education