The Impact of School Grants on Disadvantaged Students: Experimental Evidence from Romania

Rafael de Hoyos, Andrei Munteanu () and Cristian Pop-Eleches

No 11408, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This study analyzes the impact of the Romania Secondary Education Project, which was designed to improve student retention, graduation rates and pass rates on a national end-of-high-school exam for low-achievement high schools in Romania. The program was implemented in three waves, September 2017, September 2018, and September 2020, with eligible high schools randomly assigned to each. The study exploits this staggered implementation to measure the project’s causal impacts on students. The estimates indicate that the Romania Secondary Education Project had no significant impact on (i) student preferences for attending a program high school, (ii) student retention rates, (iii) high school graduation rates, (iv) enrollment in the post-high school baccalaureate exam, (v) baccalaureate exam pass rates, or (vi) baccalaureate exam scores. There was a small increase in girls’ passing rates (3 percentage points). However, there was little heterogeneity in the null effects by grant size, urban-rural status, student achievement levels, town income levels, and type of curriculum taught.

Date: 2026-06-03
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