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The Economic returns to interventions that increase learning

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Abstract

In the past decade, hundreds of impact evaluation studies have measured the learning outcomes of different education interventions. The impact magnitudes are often reported in terms of “standard deviations,” making them difficult to communicate to policymakers beyond education specialists. However, higher levels of learning are associated with additional years of schooling, higher earnings, and improved well-being. This paper employs two alternative approaches to demonstrate the effectiveness of learning interventions, one in “equivalent years of schooling” (EYOS) and another in terms of the net present value of increased lifetime earnings. The paper then extends that analysis with cost-effectiveness data and carries out a series of robustness checks. The results demonstrate that many interventions deliver sizeable learning gains relative to business-as-usual schooling: A median structured pedagogy intervention increases learning by the equivalent of between 0.6 and 0.9 years of business-as-usual schooling. The results further show that even modest gains in standard deviations of learning – if sustained over time – may have sizeable impacts on individual earnings, and that conversion into a non-education metric enables the comparison of education interventions with those in other sectors, such as health and infrastructure. The results should help policy makers and non-specialists to better understand the potential benefits of increased learning.

Author
Evans, David K.
Yuan, Fei
Year of publication
2017
Pages
50
Source database
library
Language