Enhancing Human Capital in Children: A Case Study on Scaling

Francesco Agostinelli (), Ciro Avitable () and Matteo Bobba
Additional contact information
Francesco Agostinelli: University of Pennsylvania
Ciro Avitable: World Bank

No 2021-012, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: This paper provides novel insights into the science of scaling by examining an educational mentoring program in Mexico. The analysis encompasses two independent field experiments, and seizes a unique opportunity to learn from the government's implementation of the same intervention. While the program originally implemented at scale demonstrates limited effectiveness, the introduction of a new modality with enhanced mentor training significantly improves children's outcomes. Mentor-parent interactions are found to stimulate parental engagement at the community-school level, which emerges as a critical factor for the scalability of the program. Our findings offer compelling evidence on the socially determined drivers of education interventions at scale.

Keywords: children's skills; parental investments; community engagement; science of scaling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 C93 D02 I30 J10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-edu
Note: ECI
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Agosti ... capital-at-scale.pdf First version, March 22, 2021 (application/pdf)
http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Agosti ... ital-at-scale_r1.pdf Second version, August 21, 2022 (application/pdf)
http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Agosti ... ital-at-scale_r2.pdf Third version, June 21, 2023 (application/pdf)
http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Agosti ... ital-at-scale_r3.pdf Fourth version, October 14, 2023 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Enhancing Human Capital in Children: A Case Study on Scaling (2025)
Working Paper: Enhancing human capital in children: a case study on scaling (2025)
Working Paper: Enhancing Human Capital in Children: A Case Study on Scaling (2023)
Working Paper: Enhancing Human Capital in Children: A Case Study on Scaling (2023)
Working Paper: Enhancing Human Capital in Children: A Case Study on Scaling (2023)
Working Paper: Enhancing Human Capital in Children: A Case Study on Scaling (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hka:wpaper:2021-012

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jennifer Pachon ().