We evaluate a “girl-friendly” primary school program in Burkina Faso using a regression discontinuity design. After 2.5 years, the program increased enrollment by 19 percentage points and increased test scores by 0.41 standard deviations. For those caused to attend school, scores increased by 2.2 standard deviations. Girls’ enrollment increased by 5 percentage points more than boys’ enrollment,...

We exploit Italian law DPR 81/2009, which determines class composition, as an instrument to identify the causal effect of grouping students of different grades into a single class (multigrading) on children cognitive achievement. This article focuses on 7-yearold students—those at the beginning of their formal education. Results suggest that attendance in multigrade classes versus single-grade ...

This paper investigates the causal effects of the increase in tuition fees and the Great Recession on the risk of students dropping out of HE. For students from high unemployment areas the effect of the recession was positive for males and females. The tuition fee reform counteracted the recession effect for males, whereas for females the reform effect reinforced the recession effect. For stude...

The paper explores the strict school enrolment rules to estimate the effect of age at school entry on school achievement for 15-16 year old students in Norway using achievement tests in reading from OECD-PISA. Since enrolment date is common and compulsory for all students born in a particular calendar year, it is possible to identify the pure effect of enrolment age holding the length of school...

We analyse the initial impact of a major school admission reform in Brighton and Hove. The new system incorporated a lottery for oversubscribed places and new catchment areas. We examine the post-reform changes in school composition. We locate the major winners and losers in terms of the quality of school attended. We match similar cities and conduct a difference-in-difference analysis of the p...

One-fifth of US high school students report being bullied each year. We use internet search data for real-time tracking bullying patterns as COVID-19 disrupted in-person schooling. first show that pre-pandemic searches contain useful information about actual behavior. then and cyberbullying dropped 30–35 percent schools shifted to remote learning in spring 2020. The gradual return instruction s...

I analyze how two reforms, introduced to expand college access in Brazil, impacted enrollments of low-SES students. The first policy centralized applications a nationwide platform (SISU), and the second expanded affirmative action quotas (AA) uniform share 50 percent vacancies offered by degree. Results show that SISU changes enrollment decisions high-SES students, crowding out groups from leas...

How do early-life experiences shape political identity? We examine the end of race-based busing in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, an event that led to large changes school racial composition. Using administrative data, we compare party affiliation adulthood for students who had lived on opposite sides newly drawn boundaries. Consistent with contact hypothesis, find a 10 percentage point increas...

There are a broad range of rehabilitation programs but results differ significantly among them, from positive to no-effect programs –and even to negative-effect programs. Hence, in order to guide policy, it is necessary to find out the features that should be present in programs for inmates to guarantee positive effects. We used a random assignment to evaluate an innovative rehabilitation progr...