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Decentralizing Education Resources: School Grants in Senegal

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Listed:
  • Pedro Carneiro
  • Oswald Koussihouèdé
  • Nathalie Lahire
  • Costas Meghir
  • Corina Mommaerts

Abstract

The impact of school resources on the quality of education in developing countries may depend crucially on whether resources are targeted efficiently. In this paper we use a randomized experiment to analyze the impact of a school grants program in Senegal, which decentralized a portion of the country’s education budget. We find large positive effects on test scores at younger grades that persist at least two years. We show that these effects are concentrated among schools that focused funds on human resources improvements rather than school materials, suggesting that teachers and principals may be a central determinant of school quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedro Carneiro & Oswald Koussihouèdé & Nathalie Lahire & Costas Meghir & Corina Mommaerts, 2015. "Decentralizing Education Resources: School Grants in Senegal," NBER Working Papers 21063, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21063
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    1. Decentralizing education resources: school grants in Senegal
      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2015-09-09 17:28:05

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    Cited by:

    1. Pedro Carneiro & Sokbae Lee & Daniel Wilhelm, 2020. "Optimal data collection for randomized control trials," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 23(1), pages 1-31.
    2. Jan Bietenbeck & Marc Piopiunik & Simon Wiederhold, 2018. "Africa’s Skill Tragedy: Does Teachers’ Lack of Knowledge Lead to Low Student Performance?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 53(3), pages 553-578.
    3. Woo, Seokjin & Lee, Soohyung & Kim, Kyunghee, 2015. "Carrot and stick?: Impact of a low-stakes school accountability program on student achievement," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 195-199.
    4. Hakizimfura, Emmanuel & Randall, Douglas & Zia, Bilal, 2020. "Decentralized delivery of financial education: Experimental evidence from Rwanda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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