Vouchers for Low-Cost Private Schools: Six-Year Impacts from a Lottery in Delhi

Last registered on June 29, 2017
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Vouchers for Low-Cost Private Schools: Six-Year Impacts from a Lottery in Delhi
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002239
Initial registration date
June 08, 2017

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
June 08, 2017, 6:15 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
June 29, 2017, 11:25 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
India
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Justin Sandefur
Affiliation
Center for Global Development
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Lee Crawfurd
PI Affiliation
Ark
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PI Name
Dev Patel
PI Affiliation
Center for Global Development
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2011-05-30
End date
2017-06-30
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
Private schools, Voucher, Learning
JEL code(s)
C93, H44, H52, I21, O15
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Why do parents in low-income countries send their children to private schools? This paper seeks to shed light on this question by evaluating the impact of randomly allocated vouchers that provided families tuition-free access to private schools. In a randomized control trial in East Delhi, treated students were given five years worth of tuition vouchers to attend a nearby private school. Six years out, we track these students and collect information on their academic abilities and other important characteristics.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Crawfurd, Lee, Dev Patel and Justin Sandefur. 2017. "Vouchers for Low-Cost Private Schools: Six-Year Impacts from a Lottery in Delhi." AEA RCT Registry. June 29. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2239-2.0
Former Citation
Crawfurd, Lee, Dev Patel and Justin Sandefur. 2017. "Vouchers for Low-Cost Private Schools: Six-Year Impacts from a Lottery in Delhi." AEA RCT Registry. June 29. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2239/history/19061
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
In Delhi, vouchers were randomly allocated among economically disadvantaged students, giving them the opportunity to attend low-cost private schools for free. The experiment launched in the 2010-2011 school year and continued to provide vouchers to treated students for five years until the 2015-2016 school year. The vouchers were worth about Rs. 7,300, or about $117 U.S. dollars. 100 private schools agreed to accept voucher students.
Intervention Start Date
2011-09-01
Intervention End Date
2016-05-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Our key outcomes variables are Hindi, English, and mathematics ability.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
These three primary variables will be constructed using a three-parameter item response theory model.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
In order to be eligible for the lottery, the family income could not exceed Rs. 8,000 per month (about $129 U.S. dollars.) Additionally, the child must not have been enrolled in a recognized private school at the time of the lottery but instead be attending a government school, unrecognized private school, or unenrolled. Approximately 1,620 children entered the lottery. Voucher recipients were randomly allocated. The lottery was conducted at an individual level, though if one sibling in a household won the lottery, the status of all other siblings in the household was also automatically set to win. Thus out of 1,338 households, 815 students received vouchers.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization was done by a computer.
Randomization Unit
The level of randomization and clustering is the household.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1338 households
Sample size: planned number of observations
1620 students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
815 lottery winners and 805 lottery losers.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
The minimum detectable effect size is 0.14 standard deviations (not accounting for attrition.)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Sussex Social Sciences & Arts Research Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2017-03-31
IRB Approval Number
ER/LC398/1
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials