Incentives to Learn

We study a randomized evaluation of a merit scholarship program in which Kenyan girls who scored well on academic exams had school fees paid and received a grant. Girls showed substantial exam score gains, and teacher attendance improved in program schools. There were positive externalities for girls with low pretest scores, who were unlikely to win a scholarship. We see no evidence for weakened intrinsic motivation. There were heterogeneous program effects. In one of the two districts, there were large exam gains and positive spillovers to boys. In the other, attrition complicates estimation, but we cannot reject the hypothesis of no program effect.

[1]  Edward Miguel,et al.  Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities, Guide to Replication of Miguel and Kremer (2004) , 2014 .

[2]  Ewart Keep.  The incentives to learn , 2009 .

[3]  Joshua D. Angrist,et al.  Long-Term Educational Consequences of Secondary School Vouchers: Evidence from Administrative Records in Colombia , 2006 .

[4]  E. Duflo,et al.  Monitoring Works: Getting Teachers to Come to School , 2005 .

[5]  H. Mirza.  Do schools make a difference , 2005 .

[6]  George A. Akerlof,et al.  Identity and the Economics of Organizations , 2005 .

[7]  E. Fehr,et al.  The Hidden Costs and Returns of Incentives - Trust and Trustworthiness Among CEOS , 2004 .

[8]  J. Angrist,et al.  Long-Term Consequences of Secondary School Vouchers: Evidence from Administrative Records in Colombia , 2004 .

[9]  E. Moretti.  Workers' Education, Spillovers, and Productivity: Evidence from Plant-Level Production Functions , 2004 .

[10]  A. Rustichini,et al.  Performance in Competitive Environments: Gender Differences , 2003 .

[11]  David B. Mustard,et al.  The Effects of Merit-Based Financial Aid on Course Enrollment, Withdrawal and Completion in College , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[12]  J. Tirole,et al.  Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation , 2003 .

[13]  H. Oosterbeek,et al.  The Effect of Financial Rewards on Students' Achievement: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment , 2003 .

[14]  M. Kremer,et al.  Randomized Evaluations of Educational Programs in Developing Countries: Some Lessons , 2003 .

[15]  David B. Mustard,et al.  The Enrollment Effects of Merit-Based Financial Aid: Evidence from Georgia's Hope Scholarship , 2003 .

[16]  Rachel E. Kranton,et al.  Identity and Schooling: Some Lessons for the Economics of Education , 2002 .

[17]  B. Jacob,et al.  Rotten Apples: An Investigation of the Prevalence and Predictors of Teacher Cheating , 2002 .

[18]  S. Dynarski.  The Consequences of Merit Aid , 2002 .

[19]  E. Hanushek,et al.  The Failure of Input-Based Schooling Policies , 2002 .

[20]  David S. Lee,et al.  Trimming for Bounds on Treatment Effects with Missing Outcomes , 2002 .

[21]  E. Duflo.  The Medium Run Effects of Educational Expansion: Evidence from a Large School Construction Program in Indonesia , 2002 .

[22]  Hidehiko Ichimura,et al.  Education maintenance allowance: the first year: a quantitative evaluation , 2001 .

[23]  E. Fehr,et al.  Do Incentive Contracts Crowd Out Voluntary Cooperation? , 2000 .

[24]  M. Bils.  [How Large Are Human-Capital Externalities? Evidence from Compulsory Schooling Laws]: Comment , 2000, NBER Macroeconomics Annual.

[25]  E. Lazear,et al.  Educational Production , 1999 .

[26]  Angus Deaton,et al.  School Inputs and Educational Outcomes in South Africa , 1999 .

[27]  R. Stott,et al.  The World Bank , 2006, Dealing with Debt.

[28]  J. Cameron,et al.  Reinforcement, Reward, and Intrinsic Motivation: A Meta-Analysis , 1994 .

[29]  Jianqing Fan.  Design-adaptive Nonparametric Regression , 1992 .

[30]  J. Nurmi.  How do adolescents see their future? A review of the development of future orientation and planning , 1991 .

[31]  Andrew John,et al.  Coordinating Coordination Failures in Keynesian Models , 1988 .

[32]  R. Lucas.  On the Mechanics of Economic Development , 1988 .

[33]  A. L. Greene.  Future-time perspective in adolescence: The present of things future revisited , 1986, Journal of youth and adolescence.

[34]  Charles L. Ballard,et al.  General Equilibrium Computations of the Marginal Welfare Costs of Taxes in the United States , 1985 .

[35]  R. Nisbett,et al.  Undermining children's intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward: A test of the "overjustification" hypothesis. , 1973 .

[36]  Arie W. Kruglanski,et al.  The effects of extrinsic incentive on some qualitative aspects of task performance1 , 1971 .

[37]  B. Skinner.  Teaching machines. , 1958, Scientific American.

[38]  R. Banerjee,et al.  Foreword , 2011, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A.

[39]  Daniel A. Ackerberg,et al.  Workers ' Education , Spillovers , and Productivity : Evidence from Plant-Level Production Functions , 2010 .

[40]  Oct Nov.  Ministry of Planning and National Development , 2007 .

[41]  David B. Mustard,et al.  The Effects of Merit-based Financial Aid on Course Enrollment, Withdrawal and Completion in College * , 2005 .

[42]  M. Kremer,et al.  Decentralization: A cautionary tale , 2003 .

[43]  P. Glewwe,et al.  Textbooks and Test Scores: Evidence from a Prospective Evaluation in Kenya Work-in-Progress , 2002 .

[44]  Victor Lavy,et al.  Achievement Awards for High School Matriculation : Evidence from Randomized Trials , 2002 .

[45]  W D Pierce,et al.  Pervasive negative effects of rewards on intrinsic motivation: The myth continues , 2001, The Behavior analyst.

[46]  E. Miguel.  Ethnic Diversity and School Funding in Kenya , 2001 .

[47]  E. Deci,et al.  A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. , 1999, Psychological bulletin.

[48]  A. M. Dickinson.  The Detrimental Effects of Extrinsic Reinforcement on “Intrinsic Motivation” , 1989, The Behavior analyst.

[49]  E. Deci.  Effects of Externally Mediated Rewards on Intrinsic Motivation. , 1971 .

[50]  H. Kay.  Teaching Machines , 1961, Nature.