Working Paper: NBER ID: w28976
Authors: James Allen IV; Arlete Mahumane; James Riddell IV; Tanya Rosenblat; Dean Yang; Hang Yu
Abstract: Interventions to promote learning are often categorized into supply- and demand-side approaches. In a randomized experiment to promote learning about COVID-19 among Mozambican adults, we study the interaction between a supply and a demand intervention, respectively: teaching via targeted feedback, and providing financial incentives to learners. In theory, teaching and learner-incentives may be substitutes (crowding out one another) or complements (enhancing one another). Experts surveyed in advance predicted a high degree of substitutability between the two treatments. In contrast, we find substantially more complementarity than experts predicted. Combining teaching and incentive treatments raises COVID-19 knowledge test scores by 0.5 standard deviations, though the standalone teaching treatment is the most cost-effective. The complementarity between teaching and incentives persists in the longer run, over nine months post-treatment.
Keywords: COVID-19; Teaching; Education; Learning; Cost-effectiveness; Mozambique; Africa
JEL Codes: D90; I12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Teaching (A20) | COVID-19 knowledge test scores (C12) |
| Incentives (M52) | COVID-19 knowledge test scores (C12) |
| Teaching + Incentives (A21) | COVID-19 knowledge test scores (C12) |
| Teaching + Incentives (A21) | Complementarity effect on COVID-19 knowledge test scores (C92) |
| Teaching and Incentives (A21) | COVID-19 knowledge test scores (C12) |