Disrupting Education? Experimental Evidence on Technology-Aided Instruction in India
- (pp. 1426-60)
Abstract
We study the impact of a personalized technology-aided after-school instruction program in middle-school grades in urban India using a lottery that provided winners with free access to the program. Lottery winners scored 0.37 sigma higher in math and 0.23 sigma higher in Hindi over just a 4.5-month period. IV estimates suggest that attending the program for 90 days would increase math and Hindi test scores by 0.6 sigma and 0.39 sigma respectively. We find similar absolute test score gains for all students, but much greater relative gains for academically-weaker students. Our results suggest that well-designed, technology-aided instruction programs can sharply improve productivity in delivering education.Citation
Muralidharan, Karthik, Abhijeet Singh, and Alejandro J. Ganimian. 2019. "Disrupting Education? Experimental Evidence on Technology-Aided Instruction in India." American Economic Review, 109 (4): 1426-60. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20171112Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I21 Analysis of Education
- I26 Returns to Education
- I28 Education: Government Policy
- J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
- O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration