Understanding Education Policy Preferences: Survey Experiments with Policymakers in 35 Developing Countries

Lee Crawfurd, Susannah Hares, Ana Minardi and Justin Sandefur
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Susannah Hares: Center for Global Development
Ana Minardi: Center for Global Development

No 596, Working Papers from Center for Global Development

Abstract: Foreign aid donors and international organizations supporting education in developing countries have increasingly coalesced around a policy agenda prioritizing foundational learning, measured by test scores in primary school, based on a diagnosis of deficient school quality, and a growing body of empirical evidence about effective interventions to improve quality. We survey over 900 senior government officials working on education in 35 low- and middle-income countries to gauge their alignment with this agenda. Using conjoint and survey experiments, we show that on average policymakers prioritise vocational over foundational skills. We then seek to explain variation in preferences as a function of three possible factors: different objectives for education (e.g., test scores versus socialization), different beliefs about the state of the world (e.g., enrollment and learning levels), and different beliefs about the effectiveness of specific interventions. Misalignment with donor agendas is evident in all three dimensions. We also show experimentally that beliefs can be changed through the provision of evidence.

Keywords: foundational literacy; vocational education; bureaucracy; policy preferences; conjoint; discrete choice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H40 H52 I22 I25 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 pages
Date: 2021-11-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-exp
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cgd:wpaper:596

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