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Course syllabus – Econ 590: Development Economics: Theory and Policy

Topic: The Economics of Education in Developing Countries

Fall 2017

Professor Rebecca Thornton – rebeccat@illinois.edu

Class

Tue and Thurs: 10AM-11:50AM

Location: Wohlers Computer Lab

Office hours

Mon 10-11, Thurs 3:30-5:00

Make an appointment: https://goo.gl/hQ1Pws

Location: 101A DKH

*E-mail is the preferred method of contact. Please do not just “drop by”*.

I. Course Description

Despite the high returns to education, children across the world – and especially in low-

income settings – are not achieving critical basic skills. This course covers three main topics

on the economics of education in developing countries.

1 – Investing in Education: What are the private and social returns to education? What

works for increasing enrollment?

2 – The Learning Crisis: How is learning measured? What is the state of learning outcomes

in developing countries? What are the challenges to providing quality education?

3 – Promising Approaches: What is the existing evidence on what works for improving

education? How is effectiveness measured and how do we assess the quality of evidence?

How do we use the body of evidence for policy? What are the major gaps in knowledge?

The course is designed to develop the skills required to critically analyze policy issues and

problems, articulate relevant policy options and bring research skills and data to help

frame evidence-based decision-making. One emphasis throughout the course is on real

world data analysis using the Stata statistical software package. Another objective is to

develop writing skills to translate research to policy-makers.

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II. Course Goals and Objectives

Students will acquire a comprehensive knowledge of the evidence on the impact of

various interventions to improve access to, and quality of, education in developing

countries.

Students will gain an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different

methodological approaches to impact evaluation.

Students will develop the following skills as consumers of research:

‐ Understanding and summarizing academic research

‐ Critiquing and assessing research for quality and relevance

‐ Replicating empirical analyses

‐ Synthesizing evidence across multiple sources

‐ Planning research to answer policy-relevant questions

‐ Designing tools for evaluation

‐ Writing clear, concise and effective summaries, reviews, memos, and briefs to

effectively communicate to policy makers

III. Methods of Instruction and Expectations

This course meets every Tuesday and Thursday for one hour and fifty minutes. Class time

will consist of lectures, discussion, computer work, presentations, and in-class exercises.

Students are required to complete assigned readings and make comments on the course

website prior to class. Students will be engaged in peer-review of each other’s work in an

effort to improve communication skills in both directions – presenting ideas and effectively

and positively critiquing others.

IV. Course Text and Readings

We will rely heavily on the following textbooks:

1. (EE) Economics of Education. Brewer, Dominic and Patrick J. McEwan (2010).

2. (RMP) Research Methods in Practice. Remler and Van Ryzin.

3. Field Experiments and Their Critics. Edited by Dawn Langan Teele.

Other readings will be available on the course site.

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V. Course Outline/Weekly Schedule

1 Aug 29 Overview and motivation: goals vs. evaluation movement

Aug 31 Lab: Stata intro

2 Sept 5 Returns to education: theory

Sept 7 Enrollment + lab: describing data, existing evidence

3 Sept 12 Lab: graphing and summarizing data

Sept 14 No class

4 Sept 19 The learning crisis: statistics

Sept 21 Measuring learning outcomes

5 Sept 26 Teachers and school quality

Sept 28 More on teachers

6 Oct 3 GUEST LECTURE

Oct 5 In class work

7 Oct 10 Group presentations and discussion

Oct 12 More group presentations and discussion

8 Oct 17 Theories of change

Oct 19 What works? Meta-analysis

9 Oct 24 More meta-analysis

Oct 26 Presentations: theory of change

10 Oct 31 Causality

Nov 2 Lab: Flip charts

11 Nov 7 Threats to validity : attrition

Nov 9 Further discussion – what works, why no evaluation?

12 Nov 14 Spillovers

Nov 16 Lab: worms

13 Nov 21 Thanksgiving Break

Nov 23 Thanksgiving Break

14 Nov 28 Sampling, over sampling, random assignment

Nov 30 Power and sample size

15 Dec 5 Costs

Dec 7 What next? How much can we generalize?

16 Dec 12 Final thoughts

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VI. Evaluation and Grading

Grades consist of the following assessments: 

# Date due Description Points

Assignment 1 9/7 Describing data 2.5

Assignment 2 10/3 Synthesis of existing literature 10

Assignment 3 9/26 Replicate and extend 5

Assignment 4 10/10 & 10/12 Quality rubric (Group) 10

Assignment 5 10/26 Theory of change (Group) 10

Assignment 6 11/9 Research brief 10

Assignment 7 11/16 In-class TOT vs. ITT 2.5

Assignment 8 12/7 Sample size 2.5

Assignment 9 12/5 In class cost-effectiveness 2.5

10 TBA Final exam 15

11 On-going Assignment: Blog 10

12 On-going Reaction sentences 5

13 On-going Peer Assessments 5

14 On-going Class participation 10

Total 100

For each class meeting, I expect you to read the assigned paper or papers in detail and to participate in class discussion.

Reaction sentences: by 12am on the day of each class I expect you to post on the class forum a question or comment (just 1-3 sentences is appropriate) on any of the assigned readings.

Peer feedback will be assigned throughout the course to critique and evaluate your peers. The quality of your feedback will be assessed with penalties for large deviations from the average/my score.

Individual problem sets may be worked on with others, but you must turn in your own work. To be graded on a scale from 0-3: not completed/late, check–, check, check+. These will not be evaluated or shared with peers.

Individual writing assignments/small projects: these will often also involve data analysis and will be assessed by the instructor and peers.

Group assignments and presentations: groups will be assigned. Assessments made by instructor and peers (within and outside of each group). Individual members of the

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group may receive higher or lower marks than the group average, depending on level of contribution and effort.

A blog involving original data analysis related to a topic in the education of education in developing countries.

‐ Each student will be assigned a specific date to post their blog. Students may trade dates with a classmate if both students agree and email the instructor.

‐ There are two parts to the submission. First, a Word or PDF document must be uploaded. Second, the entry must be posted to the class blog. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that the post displays correctly, including links and other formatting. Students should post directly to the blog, using the link and login details on the course website. Deliberate misuse of the login information, including deleting or editing another student’s entry, is a serious case of academic misconduct.

‐ Students are required to comment on others’ posts (at least twice in the semester). Comments are due one week after the deadline for the blog is posted, and should be posted directly to the blog and submitted in a Word or PDF document to the course website with a reference to the date and title of the blog you are commenting on.

‐ The blog should be based on an analysis of an article (not a blog post or letter to the editor; an editorial is acceptable) from a newspaper in a developing country, using ideas discussed during class. Students must link to the motivating article, briefly summarize its content and describe tie the ideas into the themes discussed in class. Please choose a newspaper article published recently. Students who choose articles that are not originally written in English are responsible for providing a complete translation at the end of your blog entry.

‐ The blog should be approximately 800 and 1200 words, contains links to source material and includes graphs, illustrations, or charts. While you may discuss other’s work, you must produce original results from data analyses. The blog should not be an opinion piece but should present and discuss empirical evidence. The content should be appropriate for a lay reader who is interested in education in developing countries.

‐ Assessment will be based on accuracy of the analyses, ideas presented, and creativity.

VII. Other Course Information and Policies

If you cannot perform assignments at their scheduled dates and times, you should

not elect this course.

I do not allow electronic note-taking. It is distracting for others, for me, and less-

effective for learning.

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All assignments are to be turned in as hard copy and submitted electronically at the

beginning of the class in which they are due. Students who submit problem sets or

the paper assignments late, without prior authorization, are penalized.

Academic Integrity:

“The University has the responsibility for maintaining academic integrity so as to

protect the quality of education and research on our campus and to protect those

who depend upon our integrity. Expectations of Students: It is the responsibility of

each student to refrain from infractions of academic integrity, from conduct that

may lead to suspicion of such infractions, and from conduct that aids others in such

infractions. Students have been given notice of this Part by virtue of its publication.

Regardless of whether a student has actually read this Part, a student is charged

with knowledge of it. Ignorance is not a defense.”

The University’s full academic integrity policy is available at:

http://studentcode.illinois.edu/article1_part4_1-401.html

Special Needs

Contact me if you will require accommodation for special learning needs. To obtain

disability-related academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids, contact the Disability

Resources Educational Services (DRES) as soon as possible. To contact DRES you

may visit 1207 S. Oak Street, Champaign, call 333-4603 (V/TTY), or email a

message to disability@uiuc.edu.

Emergency Response Recommendations

The university maintains guidelines for emergency responses. A list of

recommendations when to evacuate and when to find shelter are available at:

http://illinois.edu/cms/2251/general_emergency_response_recommendations_8_16_13

_final.docx. Floor plans for specific buildings are available at:

http://police.illinois.edu/emergencyplanning/floorplans/

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WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION

8/29 Course overview

1. Chapter 8: The Collision of Development Goals and Impact Evaluation, by Michael

Clemens in: Evaluation and its Discontents: Do We Learn from Experience in

Development? (*)

2. The F-Word: Failure in International Development. Creating space for Learning and

Innovation. Michael Eddy (*)

3. “Theoretical Concepts in the Economics of Education,” EE, pp. 3-8.

4. “Empirical Research Methods in the Economics of Education,” EE, pp. 9-14.

5. RMP Chapter 1

8/31 Lab: Introduction to Stata

1. The data revolution in education information Paper N. 39 March 2017

2. “Data in the Economics of Education,” EE, pp. 15-23.

Assignment #1: Problem set

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WEEK 2: RETURNS TO EDUCATION

9/5 Theory

1. “Human Capital,” EE, pp. 27-32.

2. “Returns to Education in Developing Countries,” EE, pp. 44-51.

3. “School Quality and Earnings,” EE, pp. 52-59.

4. Leading issues in economic development. Meier and Rauch, 2005. pp. 198-199.

“Schooling and Labor Market Consequences of School Construction in Indonesia.” (*)

9/7 Enrollment – current status and interventions

1. J-PAL Policy Bulletin: Roll Call: Getting Children into School. August 2017. (*)

Assignment #1 due Thursday 9/7: Read: RMP Chapter 8, 15, Problem set

Assignment #2: Synthesis of existing literature

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WEEK 3: RETURNS TO EDUCATION

9/12 Lab – Graphing, summarizing data

Assignment #3: Data exercise and replication

9/14 No Class

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WEEK 4: THE LEARNING CRISIS & MEASUREMENT

9/19 Statistics – metrics and data

1. A Millennium Learning Goal: Measuring Real Progress in Education Deon Filmer,

Amer Hasan and Lant Pritchett. Working Paper Number 97 August 2006. (*)

2. Lant Pritchett and Justin Sandefur. 2017. "Girls’ Schooling and Women’s Literacy:

Schooling Targets Alone Won’t Reach Learning Goals." CGD Policy Paper.

Washington, DC: Center for Global Development. (*)

3. The Surprisingly Dire Situation of Children's Education in Rural West Africa:

Results from the CREO study in Guinea-Bissau (Comprehensive Review of

Education Outcomes) , pp 255-280. Peter Boone, Ila Fazzio, Kameshwari Jandhyala,

Chitra Jayanty, Gangadhar Jayanty, Simon Johnson, Vimala Ramachandran, Filipa

Silva and Zhaoguo Zhan. In African Successes, Volume II: Human Capital Sebastian

Edwards, Simon Johnson and David Weil. (*)

9/21 Measurement

1. RMP Chapter 4

2. Assessments and Numeracy With Reference to Early Grade Numeracy in Low

Income Countries GIZ

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WEEK 5: MEASUREMNT AND TEACHER QUALITY

9/26 More on measurement

1. How USAID’s Demographic and Health Surveys Overestimate Literacy around the

World—and How to Fix That, 5/24/17 Justin Sandefur. (*)

2. How (well) is Education Measured in Household Surveys? A Comparative Analysis

of the Education Modules in 30 Household Surveys from 1996–2005 Education

Policy and Data Center. (*)

Assignment #3 due Tuesday 9/26: Data exercise and replication

Assignment #4 Group Work: Quality rubric

9/28 Teachers and school quality

1. “Teachers in Developing Countries,” EE, pp. 243-250.

2. Enrollment Without Learning: Teacher Effort, Knowledge, and Skill in Primary

Schools in Africa Tessa Bold, Deon Filmer, Gayle Martin, Ezequiel Molina, Brian

Stacy, Christophe Rockmore, Jakob Svensson, and Waly Wane Journal of Economic

Perspectives (forthcoming) (*)

3. Can Value Added Add Value to Teacher Evaluation? Linda Darling-Hammond (*)

4. A Case Study in the Mismatch Between Education Research and Policy Stephen W.

Raudenbush 2015 Volume: 44 issue: 2, page(s): 138-141 DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X15575345 (*)

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WEEK 6: GUEST LECTURE AND GROUP WORK

10/3 Guest Lecture

1. TBD (*)

Assignment #2 due 10/3: Synthesis of existing literature

Summarize what researchers have to say about a particular educational issue. In your

review, explain the general theory, importance/motivation, describe the body of evidence,

general findings, strengths, and weaknesses of the studies. At least 8 peer-reviewed articles

should be reviewed. The format should be similar to the articles in our main textbook

(Brewer and McEwan, 2010). Lengthwise, your paper should be about 10 double-spaced

pages. You may use the approximate section/double-spaced page guidelines as follows:

Introduction (1 page), Conceptual Framework/ Theory (1 page), Background(s) of Region(s)

and Education System(s) (1page), Critical Literature Review of Existing Research (6 pages

that cite at least 8 articles), Conclusion and Research Gaps (1 page). Possible topics:

‐ Higher Education ‐ Early Childhood Education ‐ Parent involvement ‐ Vocational Training ‐ Special Populations: Disabilities, Indigenous, Migrants/Refugees

10/5 TBD: More on teachers and in-class work on rubrics

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WEEK 7: GROUP PRESENTATIONS

10/10 presentations and discussion

Assignment #4 Group Work due Thursday 10/5: Using data from a study in Northern

Uganda, create metrics to determine your best prediction of quality teachers. See “Making

the Grade” Rebecca Thornton and Jason Kerwin working paper for background

information. Write a summary of your methods and predictions (5-10 pages) and prepare

approximately 10 power-point slides to present your findings.

10/12 Additional Results and Discussion

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WEEK 8: CONSTRAINTS AND THEORY OF CHANGE

10/17 Education production functions, challenges, and theories of change

1. RMP Chapter 2

2. EFA Global Education Monitoring Report 2015 (Summary Report)

3. Isabel Vogel. 2012. Review of the use of ‘Theory of Change’ in international

development(*)

4. Methodological Briefs Impact Evaluation No. 2 Theory of Change Patricia Rogers (*)

5. “Education Production Functions,” EE, pp. 137-147.

Assignment #5 Group Work: Theory of change

10/19 Overview – what works and what have we learned?

1. Evans, David K., and Anna Popova. 2016. “What really works to improve learning in

developing countries? An analysis of divergent findings in systematic reviews,”

World Bank Research Observer 31(2): 242-270. (*)

2. How Systematic Is That Systematic Review? The Case of Improving Learning

Outcomes. David Evans and Anna Popova. 2/28/2015. Development Impact Blog (*)

3. Improving Learning in Primary Schools of Developing Countries: A Meta-Analysis of

Randomized Experiments, by McEwan (2014) (*)

Each student will be assigned one of the following articles to read and respond to:

1. Identifying Effective Education Interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Meta-Analysis of Rigorous Impact Evaluations, Conn (2014)

2. Improving School Education Outcomes in Developing Countries: Evidence, Knowledge Gaps, and Policy Implications, Glewwe & Muralidharan (2015)

3. Challenge of Education and Learning in the Developing World, Kremer et al. (2013) 4. Quality Education for All Children? What Works in Education in Developing

Countries, Krishnaratne et al. (2013) 5. What Works to Improve the Quality of Student Learning in Developing Countries?,

Masino & Niño-Zarazúa (2015) 6. Field Experiments in Education in Developing Countries, Muralidharan (2016) 7. Improving Educational Outcomes in Developing Countries: Lessons from Rigorous

Evaluations, Murnane & Ganimian (2014)

8. Interventions for Improving Learning Outcomes and Access to Education in Low-

and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review, Snilstveit et al. (2015)

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WEEK 9: PROMISING APPROACHES – meta-analyses

10/24 Meta-analyses, continued

10/26 Presentations and discussion of theories of change

Assignment #5 In-Class to discuss Tuesday 10/17: Create a theory of change for a

specific education intervention. Possible topics include:

1. Parent involvement

2. Teacher motivation

3. Bullying/Harassment

4. Classrooms with range of ages and abilities

5. Some topic from Assignment #2

Please prepare approximately 5-6 power-point slides, a theory of change diagram, and any

supporting written material (2-3 pages).

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WEEK 10: CAUSALITY

10/31 Causality and Inference, Inputs

1. Glewwe et al. (2004)."Retrospective vs. Prospective Analyses of School Inputs." (*)

2. RMP Chapters 10, 11, 12

Assignment #6: Research Brief

11/2 Lab

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WEEK 11: CRITIQUES OF RCTS AND THREATS TO VALIDITY

11/7 Threats to validity (External and Internal)

1. Michael Kremer & Edward Miguel & Rebecca Thornton, 2009. "Incentives to Learn,"

The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(3), pages 437-456, 02(*)

11/9 Further discussion – what works, why no evaluation?

1. Cook, T. (2002) Randomized Experiments in Educational Policy Research: A Critical

Examination of the Reasons the Educational Evaluation Community has Offered for

not Doing Them. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24 (3), 175-199. (*)

2. Field Experiments and Their Critics. Edited by Dawn Langan Teele.(*)

Assignment #6 due Tuesday 11/7: Research Brief

Research brief on a randomized experiment (ie. Translation of an academic paper for a policy audience). Write a 3-4 page (single-spaced) summary and critical discussion of the randomized experiment paying particular attention to explaining the methodology and (if relevant) the expected or actual findings of the evaluation. Also discuss the bigger “development” picture that the RCT is attempting to address. Was the RCT successful in shedding light on this broader development issue? What are the limitations?

1. Double for Nothing? Experimental Evidence on the Impact of an Unconditional Teacher Salary Increase on Student Performance in Indonesia. Joppe de Ree, Karthik Muralidharan, Menno Pradhan, Halsey Rogers. NBER WP No. 21806

2. Dizon-Ross, R. (2016). Parents' perceptions and children's education: Experimental evidence from Malawi. Unpublished manuscript.

3. Parent-Teacher Meetings and Student Outcomes: Evidence from a Developing Country. Asad Islam.

4. Banerji, R., Berry, J., & Shotland, M. (2013). The Impact of Mother Literacy and Participation Programs on Child Learning: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in India. Cambridge, MA: Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL).

5. Abeberese, A. B., Kumler, T. J., & Linden, L. L. (2013). Improving Reading Skills by Encouraging Children to Read in School: A Randomized Evaluation of the Sa Aklat Sisikat Reading Program in the Philippines NBER Working Paper No. 17185. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

6. Burde, D., & Linden, L. L. (2013). Bringing Education to Afghan Girls. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 5(3), 27–40. doi:10.1257/app.5.3.27

7. Elizabeth Beasley,Élise Huillery, 2016. Willing but Unable: Short-Term Experimental Evidence on Parent Empowerment and School Quality .WBER (2016)

8. Jia Liu,Shan Liu,Jin Yan,Elizabeth Lee,Linda Mayes, 2016. The impact of life skills training on behavior problems in left-behind children in rural China: A pilot study .School Psychology International, 2016, Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 73–84

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WEEK 12: ITT VS. TOT

11/14 Spillovers

1. Miguel, Ted and Michael Kremer: “Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and

Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities”, Econometrica, 2004, 72 (1), 159-

217. (*)

11/16 Lab

In-Class Assignment #7: Problem set

Assignment #7 In-Class Problem Set

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WEEK 13: Thanksgiving Break

11/21

11/23

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WEEK 14: SAMPLING, SAMPLE SIZE, RANDOMIZATION

11/28 Sampling, over sampling, random assignment

1. TBD

11/30 Power and sample size

1. TBD

Assignment #8: Sample size

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WEEK 15: What Next?

12/5 Cost-Effectiveness

1. Why don’t economists do cost analysis in their impact evaluations? David Evans

05/10/2016 (*)

In-Class Assignment #9: Cost-effectiveness

Assignment #9 In-Class Problem Set

12/7 How much can we generalize?

1. Vivalt, Eva. "How Much Can We Generalize from Impact Evaluations" (*)

2. Scaling Up What Works: Experimental Evidence on External Validity in Kenyan

Education. Tessa Bold, Mwangi Kimenyi, Germano Mwabu, Alice Ng’ang’a, and

Justin Sandefur Working Paper 321 March 2013 (*)

3. It's All About MeE: Using Structured Experiential Learning (“e”) to Crawl the

Design Space - Working Paper 322. 4/8/13. Lant Pritchett , Salimah Samji and

Jeffrey Hammer

4. Neil Buddy Shah, Paul Wang, Andrew Fraker, Daniel Gastfriend, Evaluations with

impact Decision-focused impact evaluation as a practical policymaking tool

September 2015

Assignment #8: Sample Size

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WEEK 16: Summing up

12/12 Final discussion

Final Exam

The comprehensive Fall 2017 Final Exam Schedule, including locations, will be available by

course via the Course Explorer on October 4.