Nudging Parents to Increase Preschool Attendance in Uruguay

Nicolas Ajzenman (), Laura Becerra Luna, Juan Manuel Hernández-Agramonte, Florencia Lopez Boo, Alejandro Vásquez-Echeverría and Maria Mercedes Mateo-Berganza Diaz
Additional contact information
Nicolas Ajzenman: McGill University
Laura Becerra Luna: World Bank
Juan Manuel Hernández-Agramonte: Innovation for Poverty Action, Lima
Florencia Lopez Boo: Inter-American Development Bank
Alejandro Vásquez-Echeverría: Universidad de Montevideo

No 14921, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper presents the results of a nationwide very low-cost behavioral intervention aimed at increasing preschool attendance in Uruguay. Specifically, behaviorally-informed messages were delivered through the government's official mobile app. We document a large reduction in absenteeism, as well as an increase in some measures of cognitive development, though only for children around the median of the attendance rate baseline distribution (between deciles 4 and 6). The intervention was ineffective for children with very high or very low pre-treatment absenteeism levels. Our results, although encouraging, emphasize the limits of these types of interventions, especially for children in families where barriers to reduce absenteeism might be structural rather than behavioral.

Keywords: preschool attendance; behavioral; cognitive development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D9 I2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2021-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-lam
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Working Paper: Nudging Parents to Increase Preschool Attendance in Uruguay (2020)
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