School Uniforms, Short-Run Participation, and Long-Run Outcomes: Evidence from Kenya
研究肯尼亚贫困社区通过抽奖发放校服对儿童上学的影响，发现短期内缺勤率显著下降，但八年后对最高年级完成率和小学毕业率无持续影响。
Abstract In recent decades, the number of evaluated interventions to improve access to school has multiplied, but few studies report long-term impacts. This paper reports the impact of an educational intervention that provided school uniforms to children in poor communities in Kenya. The program used a lottery to determine who would receive a school uniform. Receiving a uniform reduced school absenteeism by 37 percent for the average student (7 percentage points) and by 55 percent for children who initially had no uniform (15 percentage points). Eight years after the program began, there is no evidence of sustained impact of the program on highest grade completed or primary school completion rates. A bounding exercise suggests no substantive positive, long-term impacts. These results contribute to a small literature on the long-run impacts of educational interventions and demonstrate the risk of initial impacts depreciating over time.