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The Best Buy? From Global Evidence to Government Practice

Author

Listed:
  • Hosam Ibrahim
  • Andreas de Barros
  • Sarah Deschênes
  • Paul Glewwe

Abstract

Can governments translate evidence on "what works" into learning gains in public schools? Morocco combined targeted remediation and structured pedagogy (two approaches ranked as "great buys" by a global evidence panel) and delivered them through the existing public-school workforce in 626 schools. Using a pre-registered matched difference-in-differences design across 276 schools and 22,846 students, we estimate that the program increased scores on an independent assessment after one year by 0.90 standard deviations: 0.52 in Arabic, 1.30 in French, and 0.93 in mathematics. Administrative records also show higher grade promotion (1.7 percentage points), while enrollment, which is nearly universal, remained unchanged.

Suggested Citation

  • Hosam Ibrahim & Andreas de Barros & Sarah Deschênes & Paul Glewwe, 2026. "The Best Buy? From Global Evidence to Government Practice," CESifo Working Paper Series 12866, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12866
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    File URL: https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/cesifo1_wp12866.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stefan Wager & Susan Athey, 2018. "Estimation and Inference of Heterogeneous Treatment Effects using Random Forests," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 113(523), pages 1228-1242, July.
    2. Steve Yadlowsky & Scott Fleming & Nigam Shah & Emma Brunskill & Stefan Wager, 2025. "Evaluating Treatment Prioritization Rules via Rank-Weighted Average Treatment Effects," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 120(549), pages 38-51, January.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O22 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Project Analysis

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