All of Scioteca
Communities & Collections By Issue Date Authors Titles Subjects Country / Region
Profiles
Our Authors
My Account
Login

Tripping at the Finish Line Experimental Evidence on the Road of Misperceptions on Secondary School Completion

In Argentina, more than 90 percent of teenagers are enrolled in upper secondary school, but only 50 percent graduate on time. I conducted a field experiment in Salta, Argentina, to test if lack of information about how inputs translate into outputs may prevent students who attend classes until the last day of high school from getting their diploma. To measure the relative importance of this treatment, I conducted a returns-to-education information intervention in a separate treatment arm. Providing information about the probability of graduation conditional on current standing and discussing intermediate steps to translate effort during students’ senior year of high school into graduation raises timely high school graduation by 5 percentage points, a 10 percent increase relative to the control group. Poor-performing students at baseline respond most to the treatment. The returns-to-education arm increases graduation rates by 10 percentage points. Both treatments increase the probability of university en-rollment by 5 percentage points, more than 30 percent relative to the control group. Together, these findings indicate that inaccu-rate beliefs about own future performance explain a significant share of the “graduation gap.”

Abstract

Description

Subject

Desarrollo social | Educación | Estudiantes | Evaluación de impacto | Investigación socioeconómica | Jóvenes | Sector académico

País / Región

Argentina

URI

https://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/1912

Date

2022-06-14

Cite from this publication

Collections

6.1 Documentos de trabajo en investigación socioeconómica

Endorsement

Review

Supplemented By

Referenced By

Thumbnail Image

Files

Tripping at the Finish Line Experimental Evidence on the Road of Misperceptions on Secondary School Completion.pdf (6.79 MB)

Authors

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

CAF

Related Items

Thumbnail Image
What a difference a full day makes: Evidence from new schools in Fortaleza

Although longer school days are in increasing supply, a lack of consensus about their effectiveness persists. Motivated by this gap, this paper studies the effect...

Thumbnail Image
Promoting secondary school retention in Latin America and the Caribbean

In Latin America and the Caribbean, more students than ever are entering secondary school — but too many of them never complete this level and...

Thumbnail Image
Spillovers of health education at school on parents´ physical activity

To prevent modern health conditions like obesity, cancer, cardiovascular illness, and diabetes, which have reached epidemic-like proportions in recent decades, many health experts argue that...

Thumbnail Image
Preventing underage alcohol use through changes in norms and risk perception: A randomized evaluation of two school-based prevention programs in Colombia

This study evaluates the short-term impact of two school-based inter ventions designed to prevent alcohol use among children in high-risk schools in Bogotá, Colombia. The...

Thumbnail Image
Benefits to Elite Schools and the Expected Returns to Education: Evidence from Mexico City

We exploit data on the future earnings students at high school completion expect to receive with and without a college education, together with information on...

Thumbnail Image
Who benefits when inertia is reduced? Competition, quality and returns to skill in health care markets

Increased competition may lead to incentives for firms to increase quality by incorporating higher quality inputs. This is particularly relevant in health care markets, since...