Should Aid Reward Performance? : Evidence from a Field Experiment on Health and Education in Indonesia

We report an experiment in 3,000 villages that tested whether incentives improve aid efficacy. Villages received block grants for maternal and child health and education that incorporated relative performance incentives. Subdistricts were randomized into incentives, an otherwise identical program wi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Olken, Benjamin A., Onishi, Junko, Wong, Susan
Format: Journal Article
Language:en_US
Published: American Economic Association 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22639
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recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-226392021-04-23T14:04:10Z Should Aid Reward Performance? : Evidence from a Field Experiment on Health and Education in Indonesia Olken, Benjamin A. Onishi, Junko Wong, Susan health policy education policy family planning economic development human development foreign aid neonatal mortality aid efficacy performance incentives We report an experiment in 3,000 villages that tested whether incentives improve aid efficacy. Villages received block grants for maternal and child health and education that incorporated relative performance incentives. Subdistricts were randomized into incentives, an otherwise identical program without incentives, or control. Incentives initially improved preventative health indicators, particularly in underdeveloped areas, and spending efficiency increased. While school enrollments improved overall, incentives had no differential impact on education, and incentive health effects diminished over time. Reductions in neonatal mortality in nonincentivized areas did not persist with incentives. We find no systematic scoring manipulation nor funding reallocation toward richer areas. 2015-09-17T18:30:36Z 2015-09-17T18:30:36Z 2014-10 Journal Article American Economic Journal: Applied Economics http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22639 en_US CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo American Economic Association American Economic Association Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Journal Article Indonesia
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language en_US
topic health policy
education policy
family planning
economic development
human development
foreign aid
neonatal mortality
aid efficacy
performance incentives
spellingShingle health policy
education policy
family planning
economic development
human development
foreign aid
neonatal mortality
aid efficacy
performance incentives
Olken, Benjamin A.
Onishi, Junko
Wong, Susan
Should Aid Reward Performance? : Evidence from a Field Experiment on Health and Education in Indonesia
geographic_facet Indonesia
description We report an experiment in 3,000 villages that tested whether incentives improve aid efficacy. Villages received block grants for maternal and child health and education that incorporated relative performance incentives. Subdistricts were randomized into incentives, an otherwise identical program without incentives, or control. Incentives initially improved preventative health indicators, particularly in underdeveloped areas, and spending efficiency increased. While school enrollments improved overall, incentives had no differential impact on education, and incentive health effects diminished over time. Reductions in neonatal mortality in nonincentivized areas did not persist with incentives. We find no systematic scoring manipulation nor funding reallocation toward richer areas.
format Journal Article
author Olken, Benjamin A.
Onishi, Junko
Wong, Susan
author_facet Olken, Benjamin A.
Onishi, Junko
Wong, Susan
author_sort Olken, Benjamin A.
title Should Aid Reward Performance? : Evidence from a Field Experiment on Health and Education in Indonesia
title_short Should Aid Reward Performance? : Evidence from a Field Experiment on Health and Education in Indonesia
title_full Should Aid Reward Performance? : Evidence from a Field Experiment on Health and Education in Indonesia
title_fullStr Should Aid Reward Performance? : Evidence from a Field Experiment on Health and Education in Indonesia
title_full_unstemmed Should Aid Reward Performance? : Evidence from a Field Experiment on Health and Education in Indonesia
title_sort should aid reward performance? : evidence from a field experiment on health and education in indonesia
publisher American Economic Association
publishDate 2015
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22639
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