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Does Money Matter for Student Performance? Evidence from a Grant Program in Uganda

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  • Martina Björkman

Abstract

In response to extensive corruption in the education sector, the Government of Uganda began to publish newspaper ads on the timing and amount of funds disbursed to the districts. The intent of the campaign was to boost schools' and parents' ability to monitor the local officials in charge of disbursing funds to the schools. The mass information campaign was successful. But since newspaper penetration varies greatly across districts, the exposure to information about the program, and thus funding, differ across districts. I use this variation in program exposure between districts to evaluate whether public funds have an effect on student performance. The results show that money matters: On average, students in districts highly exposed to the information campaign, and hence to the grant program, scored 0.40 standard deviations better in the Primary Leaving Exam (PLE) than students in districts less exposed to information. The results are robust to controlling for a broad range of confounding factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Martina Björkman, 2007. "Does Money Matter for Student Performance? Evidence from a Grant Program in Uganda," Working Papers 326, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
  • Handle: RePEc:igi:igierp:326
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    Cited by:

    1. Claudio Ferraz & Frederico Finan & Diana Belo Moreira, 2009. "Corrupting Learning: Evidence from Missing Federal Education Funds in Brazil," Textos para discussão 562, Department of Economics PUC-Rio (Brazil).
    2. Harounan Kazianga & Leigh Linden & Ali Protik & Matt Sloan, 2015. "Impact Evaluation of Burkina Faso's BRIGHT Program: Design Report," Mathematica Policy Research Reports c0250cd3f27d448ea70d909c3, Mathematica Policy Research.
    3. Ferraz, Claudio & Finan, Frederico & Moreira, Diana B., 2012. "Corrupting learning," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(9-10), pages 712-726.

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