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Abstract
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Before
By offering means-tested secondary school scholarships to a randomly selected subset of youth in Ghana, and comparing school enrollment and longer-term outcomes in cognition, health, employment, as well as attitudes and beliefs, between scholarship winners and a similar group of youth not offered a scholarship, this study aims to provide evidence on the barriers to enrollment and estimate the longer-run impacts of secondary education.
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After
By offering means-tested secondary school scholarships to a randomly selected subset of youth in Ghana, and comparing school enrollment and longer-term outcomes in cognition, health, employment, as well as attitudes and beliefs, between scholarship winners and a similar group of youth not offered a scholarship, this study aims to provide evidence on the barriers to enrollment and estimate the longer-run impacts of secondary education.
Starting in 2017, we began tracking children of the respondents to assess the inter-generational impact of secondary education on cognitive development. This project is conducted in collaboration with Professor Elizabeth Spelke's Laboratory for Development Studies at Harvard University and Mark Walsh.
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Trial End Date
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December 31, 2022
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December 31, 2023
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Last Published
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December 28, 2019 04:18 PM
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After
February 03, 2022 03:11 PM
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Primary Outcomes (End Points)
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educational attainment, cognitive skills, health, fertility and marriage outcomes, labor market participation, attitudes, beliefs, political participation, time and risk preferences, technology adoption
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After
educational attainment, cognitive skills, health, fertility and marriage outcomes, labor market participation, attitudes, beliefs, political participation, time and risk preferences, technology adoption
For offspring study focused on intergenerational effects: Children's cognitive development, child survival.
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Primary Outcomes (Explanation)
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Before
- Educational attainment: years of schooling, types of schooling, degrees completed
- Cognitive outcomes: score on achievement test, raven's matrix, digit recall
- Attitudes and preferences: willingness to express opinions, willingness to contribute to public goods, risk aversion, discount rates, fatalism, extroversion, conformism
- Labor market outcomes: Labor market participation, career choices, earnings)
- Non-formal sector livelihoods: coping patterns, use of fertilizer etc
- Savings and asset accumulation: use of formal and informal savings mechanisms, money management etc
- Marriage outcomes: age at marriage, spouse’s characteristics;
- Fertility: age at first pregnancy, number of children, spacing, desired family size
- Health and reproductive health: hygiene and water use habits, days of work, incidence of common diseases such as diarrhea of self and children, nutritional behavior, maternal and child health
- Civic and political participation; beliefs, values, attitudes.
- Outcomes for relatives of scholarship recipients (health and welfare of parents or guardians and siblings, educational achievement of siblings).
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After
- Educational attainment: years of schooling, types of schooling, degrees completed
- Cognitive outcomes: score on achievement test, raven's matrix, digit recall
- Attitudes and preferences: willingness to express opinions, willingness to contribute to public goods, risk aversion, discount rates, fatalism, extroversion, conformism
- Labor market outcomes: Labor market participation, career choices, earnings)
- Non-formal sector livelihoods: coping patterns, use of fertilizer etc
- Savings and asset accumulation: use of formal and informal savings mechanisms, money management etc
- Marriage outcomes: age at marriage, spouse’s characteristics;
- Fertility: age at first pregnancy, number of children, spacing, desired family size
- Health and reproductive health: hygiene and water use habits, days of work, incidence of common diseases such as diarrhea of self and children, nutritional behavior, maternal and child health
- Civic and political participation; beliefs, values, attitudes.
- Outcomes for relatives of scholarship recipients (health and welfare of parents or guardians and siblings, educational achievement of siblings).
For offspring study focused on intergenerational effects: The components of the cognitive development measured are children’s executive function, children’s language skills, children’s math and numeracy, children’s social cognition, children's spatial reasoning.
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Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
We sampled 2,064 students (evenly split between males and females) who had completed junior high school and earned admission into a 4-year secondary school (“senior high school”) but had not enrolled by the Fall 2008 due to financial constraints. Out of these 2,064 students, 682 students were selected (by lottery) to receive a scholarship that covered 100% of the tuition and fees at a local public senior high school. The scholarships were announced during the 2008/2009 academic year and over 75% of scholarship winners enrolled in senior high school that year.
The goal is to compare the outcomes of those offered the scholarship (the treatment group) with those who did not win the lottery (the comparison group) for at least 10 years in order to estimate the impacts of lowering the financial barriers to secondary school enrollment and the returns to secondary education. We will track each of the 2,064 students in the baseline sample (both scholarships winners and losers) three times over 10 years to conduct short-, medium-, and long-run follow-ups.
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After
We sampled 2,064 students (evenly split between males and females) who had completed junior high school and earned admission into a 4-year secondary school (“senior high school”) but had not enrolled by the Fall 2008 due to financial constraints. Out of these 2,064 students, 682 students were selected (by lottery) to receive a scholarship that covered 100% of the tuition and fees at a local public senior high school. The scholarships were announced during the 2008/2009 academic year and over 75% of scholarship winners enrolled in senior high school that year.
The goal is to compare the outcomes of those offered the scholarship (the treatment group) with those who did not win the lottery (the comparison group) for at least 10 years in order to estimate the impacts of lowering the financial barriers to secondary school enrollment and the returns to secondary education. We will track each of the 2,064 students in the baseline sample (both scholarships winners and losers) three times over 10 years to conduct short-, medium-, and long-run follow-ups.
** In addition, as of 2017 we started tracking their children and administering an assessment of cognitive development, based on frontier research in cognitive science and developed for use in Ghana. We are administering assessments when a child reaches the following critical age windows: 14-22 months old, 30-36 months old, 3-4 years old, 5-6 years old, 7-8 years old.
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Planned Number of Clusters
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Before
2064 students and their baseline household co-members (guardians, siblings)
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After
2064 students and their baseline household co-members (guardians, siblings)
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Planned Number of Observations
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2064 students and their baseline household co-members (guardians, siblings)
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2064 students and their baseline household co-members (guardians, siblings)
+ their children
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Additional Keyword(s)
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Early Childhood Development
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Keyword(s)
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Education, Health, Labor
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Education, Gender, Health, Labor, Other
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Public analysis plan
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No
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Yes
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Secondary Outcomes (End Points)
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For offspring study focused on intergenerational effects: Child stunting, caregiver-child interactions, child's socio-economic status, family investment in child, caregiver's aspirations for child, child education, child preventive health, child health, child engagement and stimulation, caregiver depression, child's neighborhood quality
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Secondary Outcomes (Explanation)
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see details in attached pre-analysis plan
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Public locations
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No
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Yes
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Building on Existing Work
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No
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