Mentoring, Educational Services, and Economic Incentives Longer-term Evidence on Risky Behaviors from a Randomized Trial

Núria Rodriguez-Planas

UFAE and IAE Working Papers from Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC)

Abstract: This paper is the first to use a randomized trial in the US to analyze the short- and long- term impacts of an afterschool program that offered disadvantaged high-school youth: mentoring, educational services, and financial rewards to attend program activities, complete high-school and enroll in post-secondary education on youths' engagement in risky behaviors, such as substance abuse, criminal activity, and teenage childbearing. Outcomes were measured at three different points in time, when youths were in their late-teens, and when they were in their early- and their late- twenties. Overall the program was unsuccessful at reducing risky behaviors. Heterogeneity matters in that perverse effects are concentrated among certain subgroups, such as males, older youths, and youths from sites where youths received higher amount of stipends. We claim that this evidence is consistent with different models of youths' behavioral response to economic incentives. In addition, beneficial effects found in those sites in which QOP youths represented a large fraction of the entering class of 9th graders provides hope for these type of programs when operated in small communities and supports the hypothesis of peer effects.

Keywords: After-school program; short-; medium- and long-term effects; behavioral models; peer effects; criminal activity; teen childbearing and substance abuse. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 I21 I22 I28 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 61
Date: 2010-05-27
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-lab, nep-ltv and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Mentoring, Educational Services, and Economic Incentives Longer-term Evidence on Risky Behaviors from a Randomized Trial (2015)
Working Paper: Mentoring, Educational Services, and Economic Incentives: Longer-Term Evidence on Risky Behaviors from a Randomized Trial (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aub:autbar:829.10

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