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Long-Run Effects from Comprehensive Student Support: Evidence from Pathways to Education

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  • Adam M. Lavecchia
  • Philip Oreopoulos
  • Robert S. Brown

Abstract

Offering comprehensive education support services to disadvantaged students shows promise for improving academic attainment. We explore longer-term impacts of the Pathways to Education program, a set of coaching, tutoring, group activities, and financial incentives initially offered in 2001 to grade-nine students living in the largest public housing community in Toronto. Using a difference-in-difference methodology and matching school records to income tax data through age 28 for a sample of students living in public housing under similar circumstances, we find that Pathways eligibility increased adult annual earnings by 19 percent, employment by 14 percent, and reduced welfare receipt by more than 30 percent.

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  • Adam M. Lavecchia & Philip Oreopoulos & Robert S. Brown, 2020. "Long-Run Effects from Comprehensive Student Support: Evidence from Pathways to Education," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 209-224, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:aea:aerins:v:2:y:2020:i:2:p:209-24
    DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20190114
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    Cited by:

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    2. Sven Resnjanskij & Jens Ruhose & Simon Wiederhold & Ludger Woessmann & Katharina Wedel, 2024. "Can Mentoring Alleviate Family Disadvantage in Adolescence? A Field Experiment to Improve Labor Market Prospects," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 132(3), pages 1013-1062.
    3. Adam Lavecchia & Philip Oreopoulos & Noah Spencer, 2024. "The Impact of Comprehensive Student Support on Crime," Department of Economics Working Papers 2024-01, McMaster University.
    4. Rodríguez-Planas, Núria & Secor, Alan & De Balanzó Joue, Rafael, 2023. "Resilience-Thinking Training for College Students: Evidence from a Randomized Trial," IZA Discussion Papers 16627, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Sven Resnjanskij & Jens Ruhose & Simon Wiederhold & Ludger Wößmann, 2021. "Mentoring Improves the Labor-Market Prospects of Highly Disadvantaged Adolescents," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 74(02), pages 31-38, February.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship

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