This randomized experiment investigates the long-term effects of a primary school scholarship program in rural Cambodia. In 2008, fourth-grade students in 207 randomly assigned schools (103 treatment, 104 control) received scholarships based on the student's academic performance in math and language or on their level of poverty. Three years after the program's inception, an evaluation showed that both types of scholarship recipients had more schooling than non-recipients; however, only merit-based scholarships led to improvements in cognitive skills. This new study assesses impacts, nine years after program inception, on the educational attainment, cognitive skills, socioemotional outcomes, socio-economic status and well-being, and labor market outcomes, of individuals who are, on average, 21 years old.
External Link(s)
Citation
Barrera-Osorio, Felipe, Andreas de Barros and Deon Filmer. 2018. "Long-Term Impacts of Alternative Approaches to Increase Schooling." AEA RCT Registry. August 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3261-1.0.
Elementary school scholarships, randomized at the school level (and stratified by province), in three arms: Control, "Treatment" based on "merit", "Treatment" based on "need". Within each "treated" school, assignment was done at the student-level, using the respective median score. See Barrera-Osorio & Filmer (2016) for further details.
Intervention Start Date
2008-02-01
Intervention End Date
2011-04-30
Primary Outcomes (end points)
Educational attainment, cognitive skills, SES and self-reported well-being, labor-market outcomes, socioemotional outcomes.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Educational attainment: highest grade complete; completed primary; received any formal education in 2011-2017.
Cognitive skills: Computer-adaptive math test; Raven's test; Forward digit span; Picture recognition vocabulary test (PPVT).
Socioemotional outcomes: SDQ; Big 5. Labor outcomes: Currently working; Age started working; Any training since 2011; Cog. demands of main work; yearly earnings; Daily reservation wage.
SES and self-reported well-being outcomes: SES ladder; SES index; life satisfaction; quality of health; quality of life; health issue index (GHQ)
We report on (a) five family indices (inverse covariance matrix-weighted averages and (b) the above sub-components components
Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Experimental Design
Elementary school scholarships, randomized at the school level (and stratified by province), in three arms: Control, "Treatment" based on "merit", "Treatment" based on "need". Within each "treated" school, assignment was done at the student-level, using the respective median score. Barrera-Osorio & Filmer (2016) provide a detailed description of the experimental design.
Barrera-Osorio, F., & Filmer, D. (2016). Incentivizing Schooling for Learning: Evidence on the Impact of Alternative Targeting Approaches. The Journal of Human Resources, 51(2), 461.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization in central office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Elementary school scholarships, randomized at the school level (and stratified by province), in three arms: Control, "Treatment" based on "merit", "Treatment" based on "need". Within each "treated" school, assignment was done at the student-level, using the respective median score to determine eligibility. Barrera-Osorio & Filmer (2016) provide a detailed description of the experimental design.
Barrera-Osorio, F., & Filmer, D. (2016). Incentivizing Schooling for Learning: Evidence on the Impact of Alternative Targeting Approaches. The Journal of Human Resources, 51(2), 461.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes
Sample size: planned number of clusters
207
Sample size: planned number of observations
approx. 2,360
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
207 (of which 52 are "merit schools" and 51 are "need schools")
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)