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Pay for locally monitored performance? A welfare analysis for teacher attendance in Ugandan primary schools

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  • Leaver, Clare
  • Cilliers, Jacobus
  • Kasirye, Ibrahim
  • Serneels, Pieter
  • Zeitlin, Andrew

Abstract

To achieve the twin objectives of incentivizing agent performance and providing information for planning purposes, public sector organizations often rely on reports by local monitors that are costly to verify. Received wisdom has it that attaching fi nancial incentives to these reports will result in collusion, and undermine both objectives. Simple bargaining logic, however, suggests the reverse: pay for locally monitored performance could incentivize desired behavior and improve information. To investigate this issue, we conducted a randomized controlled trial in Ugandan primary schools that explored how incentives for teachers could be designed when based on local monitoring by head teachers. Our experiment randomly varied whether head teachers' reports of teacher attendance were tied to teacher bonus payments or not. We find that local monitoring on its own is ineff ective at improving teacher attendance. However, combining local monitoring with fi nancial incentives leads to both an increase in teacher attendance (by 8 percentage points) and an improvement in the quality of information. We also observe substantial gains in pupil attainment, driven primarily by a reduction in dropouts. By placing a fi nancial value on these enrollment gains, we demonstrate that pay for locally monitored performance passes both welfare and fi scal sustainability tests.

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  • Leaver, Clare & Cilliers, Jacobus & Kasirye, Ibrahim & Serneels, Pieter & Zeitlin, Andrew, 2018. "Pay for locally monitored performance? A welfare analysis for teacher attendance in Ugandan primary schools," CEPR Discussion Papers 12836, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12836
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    Cited by:

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    2. David K. Evans & Fei Yuan & Deon Filmer, 2020. "Are Teachers in Africa Poorly Paid? Evidence from 15 Countries," Working Papers 538, Center for Global Development.
    3. Evans, David K. & Yuan, Fei & Filmer, Deon, 2022. "Teacher pay in Africa: Evidence from 15 countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    4. Aker, Jenny C. & Ksoll, Christopher, 2019. "Call me educated: Evidence from a mobile phone experiment in Niger✰," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 239-257.
    5. Dustan, Andrew & Hernandez-Agramonte, Juan Manuel & Maldonado, Stanislao, 2023. "Motivating bureaucrats with behavioral insights when state capacity is weak: Evidence from large-scale field experiments in Peru," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    6. Dassy Jane S. Maquilan & Carl Mark B. Miniano, 2019. "Influence of Attendance Policy Implementation on Faculty Absenteeism: Issues and Prospects for Policy Upgrade," International Journal of Human Resource Studies, Macrothink Institute, vol. 9(3), pages 21-36, December.
    7. Conover, Emily & Kraynak, Daniel & Singh, Prakarsh, 2023. "The effect of traffic cameras on police effort: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    8. Joël Cariolle & David A Carroll, 2022. "The Use of Digital for Public Service Provision in Sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers hal-03004535, HAL.
    9. Jonathan H.W. Tan & Zhao Zichen & Daniel John Zizzo, 2023. "Scientific Inference from Field and Laboratory Economic Experiments: Empirical Evidence," Discussion Papers Series 663, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    10. Asim, Minahil & Dee, Thomas S., 2022. "Mobile Phones, Civic Engagement, and School Performance in Pakistan," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    11. Gaduh,Arya Budhiastra & Pradhan,Menno Prasad & Priebe,Jan & Susanti,Dewi, 2021. "Scores, Camera, Action : Social Accountability and Teacher Incentives in Remote Areas," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9748, The World Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Performance pay; Campbell's law; Monitoring; Field experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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