Voucher Non-Portability Identification Strategy
RCTReview
Evaluating the direct productive impact of educational vouchers is often confounded when recipients use portable vouchers to sort into schools with higher-performing peers. An empirical strategy is required to isolate voucher mechanics when voucher portability is constrained, preventing recipients from accessing superior peer groups.
Picture this
Imagine giving students a non-transferable discount coupon restricted to a specific local gym rather than an open pass to any facility. Because the coupon cannot easily be transferred to another gym, students who receive the coupon stay at their assigned local gym, while those without the coupon shop around for different clubs. This allows researchers to test whether the discount itself improves student gym attendance without the confusing side-effect of students moving to elite facilities with better workout partners.
What the evidence says
Administrative restrictions resulted in fewer than 20% of transferring students retaining their vouchers; consequently, 59.6% of voucher winners who applied to vocational schools remained in vocational schools 3 years later compared to only 42.6% of lottery losers.
- Who was studied
- N = 1,176 human secondary school voucher applicants (1995 cohort) in Bogotá, Colombia.
- How
- Randomized controlled trial tracking enrollment decisions 3 years post-lottery among applicants required to secure pre-lottery school acceptance.
What to do
Design school voucher evaluations by enforcing pre-lottery school selection to decouple voucher intervention effects from peer sorting variables.
From the source
"Because it was administratively difficult to retain the voucher if one switched schools, there was considerable stickiness in schools attended by voucher winners. Less than 20% of students that transferred after the first year of the voucher were able to retain their voucher."
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