School Costs, Short-Run Participation, and Long-Run Outcomes: Evidence from Kenya

35 Pages Posted: 1 May 2018 Last revised: 2 May 2018

Date Written: April 30, 2018

Abstract

Access to school has risen dramatically in recent decades, with large gains from reducing costs. Few studies report long-term impacts, however. This paper reports the impact of an educational intervention that reduced out-of-pocket schooling costs for children in poor communities in Kenya by providing school uniforms. The program used a lottery to determine who would receive a school uniform. Receiving a uniform reduced school absenteeism by 37 percent for the average student (7 percentage points) and by 55 percent for children who initially had no uniform (15 percentage points). Eight years after the program began, there is no evidence of sustained impact of the program on highest grade completed or primary school completion rates. A bounding exercise suggests no substantive positive, long-term impacts. These results contribute to a small literature that demonstrates the risk of fade-out of initial impacts of education investments.

Keywords: Educational Sciences, Disability, Services & Transfers to Poor, Access of Poor to Social Services, Economic Assistance, Gender and Development, Education Finance, Economics of Education, Primary Education

Suggested Citation

Evans, David and Ngatia, Irene Muthoni, School Costs, Short-Run Participation, and Long-Run Outcomes: Evidence from Kenya (April 30, 2018). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 8421, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3171288

David Evans (Contact Author)

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

Irene Muthoni Ngatia

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

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