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Conditional cash penalties in education: Evidence from the Learnfare experiment
ARTICLE

Economics of Education Review Volume 30, Number 5, ISSN 0272-7757 Publisher: Elsevier Ltd

Abstract

Wisconsin's influential Learnfare initiative is a conditional cash penalty program that sanctions a family's welfare grant when covered teens fail to meet school attendance targets. In the presence of reference-dependent preferences, Learnfare provides uniquely powerful financial incentives for student performance. However, a 10-county random-assignment evaluation suggested that Learnfare had no sustained effects on school enrollment and attendance. This study evaluates the data from this randomized field experiment. In Milwaukee County, the Learnfare procedures were poorly implemented and the random-assignment process failed to produce balanced baseline traits. However, in the nine remaining counties, Learnfare increased school enrollment by 3.5 percent (effect size=0.08) and attendance by 4.5 percent (effect size=0.10). These results suggest that well-designed financial incentives may be an effective mechanism for improving the school persistence of at-risk students at scale.

Citation

Dee, T.S. (2011). Conditional cash penalties in education: Evidence from the Learnfare experiment. Economics of Education Review, 30(5), 924-937. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved August 12, 2024 from .

This record was imported from Economics of Education Review on March 1, 2019. Economics of Education Review is a publication of Elsevier.

Full text is availabe on Science Direct: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2011.05.013

Keywords

References

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