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  3. 2026
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  5. Higher Education in Low-Income Countries
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Higher Education in Low-Income Countries

Paper Session

Monday, Jan. 5, 2026 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM (EST)

Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Grand Ballroom Salon L
Hosted By: American Economic Association
  • Chair: Paul Glewwe, University of Minnesota

The Persistent Impacts of Incentivizing Firms to Improve Apprentice Training: Experimental Evidence from a Seven-Year Follow-Up

Morgan Hardy
,
New York University-Abu Dhabi
Isaac Mbiti
,
University of Notre Dame
Jamie McCasland
,
University of British Columbia

Abstract

In 2015, we used a field experiment to test whether financial incentives could improve the quality of apprenticeship training. Trainers (firm owners) in the treatment group participated in a tournament-style incentive scheme, in which they received a payment based on their apprentices' rank-order performance on a skills assessment. Trainers in the control group received a fixed payment based only on their apprentices' participation in the assessment. Brown et al. (2024) found that apprentices in treated firms earned 24% more two years after the assessment, driven by self-employment profits. In this paper, we find that seven years after the assessment, total earnings effects persist. Apprentices from treated firms earn 33% more in total earnings. Contrary to the two-year findings, total earnings effects after seven years are driven by earnings in wage employment. Individuals who trained at treated firms are both more likely to work in wage employment and earn more conditional on working in wage employment than their counterparts who trained with control firms.

When Given Discretion, Teachers Did Not Shirk: Evidence from Remedial Education in Secondary Schools

Sabrin A. Beg
,
University of Delaware
Anne Fitzpatrick
,
Ohio State University
Jason T. Kerwin
,
University of Washington
Adrienne Lucas
,
University of Delaware
Khandker Wahedur Rahman
,
University of Oxford

Abstract

Public-sector organizations face a tradeoff: allowing workers discretion at the point of service to adapt to local needs, versus rigid harmonization to ensure uniform service delivery. We examine this tradeoff in the context of secondary schools in Odisha, India, where the centrally set curriculum is nearly 4 grades above the learning levels of the mean student. We conduct a randomized intervention that assigned schools to either a rigid or a flexible version of a remedial learning intervention that displaced the curriculum. We compare learning outcomes and teaching quality to the status quo. Both interventions increased learning by 0.11SD, about 60 percent of a year of learning, with gains throughout the learning distribution. We find no crowd-out of grade-level mastery, and no change in the likelihood of earning passing Board Marks one year later. Discretion did not lower the quality of implementation or induce shirking. Allowing teachers flexibility to adjust classroom content to student needs was beneficial and had limited downsides.

Beyond the Campus: Indirect Effects of University Openings in East Africa

Brian Dillon
,
Cornell University
Tess Lallemant
,
Cornell University

Abstract

An important line of research in economics examines how place-based government investments lead to long-run differences in regional growth trajectories. In currently developing economies, the last two decades have seen a sharp increase in location-specific government investments in the form of college and university openings. This paper examines the indirect effects of university openings on local employment and education in East Africa. We first document a roughly 500% increase in the number of public tertiary education institutions in the region, from the year 2000 to 2023. Many of these institutions were opened in small cities and regional capitals, where they represent a relatively large injection of human capital and infrastructure investment. Our identification strategy leverages the staggered timing of university openings to estimate group-time average effects (Callaway and Sant'Anna, 2021). Initial results indicate that the first opening of a college or university leads to reductions in agricultural work, increases in self-employment in the sales and services sectors (especially for women), and improvements in local educational outcomes. Our results suggest that apart from any direct effects of increased education, university openings contribute to shifts in occupational patterns that create new opportunities for local populations.

Public and Private Returns to Public University Scholarships in Uganda

Isaac Ahimbisibwe
,
Baylor University
Lenka Fiala
,
University of Ottawa and Tilburg University
Saint Kizito Omala
,
Makerere University
Wayne Aaron Sandholtz
,
Nova School of Business and Economics

Abstract

We measure the private and public returns to merit-based public university scholarships in Uganda, and use these estimates to calculate the marginal value of this use of public funds. We identify causal effects on labor market outcomes using regression discontinuities at the exam score cutoffs for the scholarships, drawing on the universe of administrative data on scholarship applications and exam scores from 2009-2019. We measure employment and wage outcomes using administrative tax records from the Uganda Revenue Authority as well as data from LinkedIn profiles.

Discussant(s)
Willa Helterline Friedman
,
University of Houston
Christopher Neilson
,
Yale University
Pamela Jakiela
,
Williams College
Owen Ozier
,
Williams College
JEL Classifications
  • O1 - Economic Development
  • I2 - Education and Research Institutions