Three Essays in the Economics of Education Oswald Koussihouede To cite this version: Oswald Koussihouede. Three Essays in the Economics of Education. Economics and Finance. Uni- versité Gaston Berger, 2015. English. tel-01150504v2 HAL Id: tel-01150504 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01150504v2 Submitted on 13 May 2015 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Copyright Université Gaston Berger Ecole Doctorale des Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société Unité de Formation et de Recherche en Sciences Economiques et de Gestion Three Essays in the Economics of Education Thèse présentée et soutenue publiquement le 13 Mars 2015 Pour l’obtention du grade de Docteur en sciences économiques Par: Oswald Koussihouèdé Jury: Mouhamadou Fall, Président, Université Gaston Berger, Sénégal Tanguy Bernard, Rapporteur, Université de Bordeaux, France Christian Monseur, Rapporteur, Université de Liège, Belgique Costas Meghir, Encadreur, Université Yale, Etats-Unis Adama Diaw, co-Encadreur, Université Gaston Berger, Sénégal L’Université Gaston Berger n’entend donner aucune approbation ni impro- bation aux opinions émises dans cette thèse. Ces opinions doivent être con- sidérées comme propres à leur(s) auteur(s). ii To Rachel-Sylviane, Emmanuelle and Théana, iii Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge everyone who made this project possible. I could not have accomplished this without the support of my advisor, Professor Costas Meghir, and of my co-advisor, Professor Adama Diaw. Thanks for helping guide my path to the club. My recognition also goes to Tanguy Bernard, Christian Monseur and Mouhamadou Sall who kindly accept to be part of the thesis committee. I have benefited from the valuable comments of participants at the research seminars organized in Abomey-Calavi (Benin) by the Institute for Empirical Research in Politi- cal Economy and in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) by the Higher Institute of Statistics. Suggestions at the training workshops organized by the African Growth Development Policy Modeling Consortium in Dakar (Senegal) were very helpful. I thank the coauthors of the first chapter for both beneficial collaboration and useful discussions. I am very appreciative to Bruno Abilou, Printys Assèdé and his family, Norbert As- sogba, Mame Cheikh Diop, Susan Godlonton, Eudes Hounkpodoté, Hilaire Hounkpodoté, Jacques Boureima Ki (General Secretary of CONFEMEN), Guy Lacroix, Nathalie Lahire, Alessandra Mattei, Samba Mbaye, Damien Mèdédji, Meskerem Mulatu (Lily), Alain- Patrick Nkengne Nkengne and Bassile Zavier Tankeu for their encouragements, thought- ful comments, suggestions or other help provided at various stages of this project. I remain responsible for all errors and views expressed in this document. Word cannot express the gratitude I owe my whole family for always showing me kindness and support during these years. To my father, the one who taught me that life is hard, so I have to work harder, I owe my deepest esteem. To Rachel-Sylviane, Emmanuelle and Théana, who, during these long years, kept asking me when I was going to be finished – this round is completed! iv Contents Dedications iii Acknowledgments iv List of Tables vii List of Figures xi General Introduction1 1 Decentralizing Education Resources: School Grants in Senegal9 1.1 Introduction..................................9 1.2 Description of the programme and evaluation............... 11 1.3 Data and balance.............................. 14 1.4 Empirical approach and inference...................... 20 1.5 Results..................................... 21 1.6 Conclusion................................... 39 2 Estimating the Causal Effect of School Size on Educational Attainment 40 2.1 Introduction.................................. 40 2.2 School size in the learning process...................... 43 2.3 Data and attrition patterns......................... 44 2.4 School size and school quality in Senegal.................. 45 2.5 Empirical approach.............................. 47 2.6 Results and discussions............................ 57 2.7 Sensitivity analyses.............................. 68 2.8 Conclusion................................... 76 v 3 An Extended Specification of the Three-Level Linear Model 79 3.1 Introduction.................................. 79 3.2 A review of multilevel modelling of test scores on PASEC’s data..... 81 3.3 Data and construction of variables...................... 85 3.4 Empirical approach.............................. 87 3.5 Results and discussions............................ 92 3.6 Conclusion................................... 104 General Conclusion 105 Bibliography 108 Appendix A Supplement to Chapter 1 127 Appendix B Supplement to Chapter 2 158 Appendix C Supplement to Chapter 3 208 vi List of Tables 1.1 Baseline Descriptive Statistics and Balance, Grade 2 ........... 17 1.2 Programme Impacts on Grade 3 Test Scores ................ 22 1.3 Programme Impacts on Grade 3 Test Scores by Baseline Ability ..... 30 1.4 Programme Impacts on Grade 3 Test Scores by Region .......... 31 1.5 South-North Differences in Test Performance, Second-Third Grades ... 33 1.6 South-North Differences in Grade 3 Household and Project Characteristics 35 1.7 Programme Impacts on School Characteristics by Region, First Follow-up 37 2.1 Estimated ATE and ATET with the Doubly Robust Method by Grade .. 63 3.1 Sample Size per Country ........................... 86 3.2 Analysis of Variance on French and Mathematics Learning Outcomes .. 93 A.1 Summary Statistics (Mean and Standard Deviation) of a Nationally Rep- resentative Sample of Second and Fifth Graders .............. 129 A.2 Student Test Scores Sample Sizes and Attrition .............. 130 A.3 Baseline Descriptive Statistics and Balance, Grade 4 ........... 131 A.4 First Follow-up Descriptive Statistics and Balance, Grade 3 ....... 133 A.5 Differences in Baseline Characteristics among First Follow-up Non-attriters 134 A.6 Differences in Baseline Characteristics among Second Follow-up Non- attriters .................................... 136 A.7 Characteristics of Schools by Baseline Missing Status, First Follow-up .. 138 A.8 Programme Impacts on Grade 3 Test Scores, Standardized Coefficients .. 139 A.9 Programme Impacts on Grade 3 Test Scores, No Conditioning Variables . 140 A.10 Programme Impacts on Grade 5 Test Scores ................ 141 A.11 Programme Impacts on Test Scores at Different Grades .......... 142 vii A.12 Programme Impacts on Grade 3 Test Scores by Region, Standardized Co- efficients .................................... 147 A.13 Programme Impacts on Grade 5 Test Scores by Baseline Ability ..... 148 A.14 Programme Impacts on Grade 5 Test Scores by Region .......... 149 A.15 Programme Impacts on Grade 3 Test Scores by School Size ........ 150 A.16 Programme Impacts on Grade 5 Test Scores by School Size ........ 151 A.17 Programme Impacts on Grade 3 Test Scores by Wealth Status ....... 152 A.18 Programme Impacts on Grade 5 Test Scores by Wealth Status ....... 153 A.19 Programme Impacts on Grade 3 Test Scores by Urban and Rural Location of Schools ................................... 154 A.20 Programme Impacts on Grade 5 Test Scores by Urban and Rural Location of Schools ................................... 155 A.21 Programme Impacts on Teacher and Household Outcomes, First Follow-up 156 A.22 Programme Impacts on Grade 3 Household Characteristics by Region, First Follow-up ................................... 157 B.1 Mean and Standard Deviation of Locality- and School-level Covariates by Urban and Rural Location of Schools .................... 159 B.2 Mean and Standard Deviation of Other Covariates, Grade 2 ....... 160 B.3 Mean and Standard Deviation of Other Covariates, Grade 4 ....... 161 B.4 Mean and Standard Deviation of Characteristics of Small and Large Schools 162 B.5 Attrition Models for Midline and Endline Surveys by Grade ....... 163 B.6 Estimated Impacts of Large School Size under Different Computation Strategies, Grade 2 .............................. 167 B.7 Estimated Impacts of Large School Size under Different Computation Strategies, Grade 4 .............................. 168 B.8 Models of the Probability of Attending a School of Large Size (Propensity Score) using the Full Set of Covariates ................... 169 B.9 Joint Balance Test for the Estimation of the ATE using the Propensity Score Predicted with the Full Set of Covariates, Grade 2 ......... 171 B.10 Joint Balance Test for the Estimation of the ATE using the Propensity Score Predicted with the Full Set of Covariates, Grade 4 ......... 173 viii B.11 Joint Balance Test for the Estimation of the ATET using the Propensity Score Predicted with the Full Set of Covariates, Grade 2 ......... 175 B.12 Joint Balance Test for the Estimation of the ATET using the Propensity Score Predicted with the Full Set of Covariates, Grade 4 ......... 177 B.13 Independent Balance Tests: T-statistics from Tests of Equality of Un- weighted Means and Weighted Means of Covariates using a Propensity Score Predicted with the Full Set of Covariates ............... 179