THE EFFECTS OF EDUCATIONAL VOUCHERS ON CONFIDENCE: A FIELD EXPERIMENT TO ASSESS OUTCOMES OF EDUCATIONAL POLICY

Abstract

This paper demonstrates how economic field experiments may offer researchers a method to quickly assess policy outcomes that otherwise are difficult to measure. We compare lottery winners to losers of a privately run educational voucher program to measure the program’s effect on confidence. We measure confidence on academic ability using protocols developed to assess the educational program. We find that confidence does not differ robustly between winners and losers. Among non African-Americans, however, winners were significantly less overconfident than losers in predicting their academic achievement test scores. We also find older children are significantly more confident in their abilities.

Citation

Slonim, R. and Bettinger, E. (2005), "THE EFFECTS OF EDUCATIONAL VOUCHERS ON CONFIDENCE: A FIELD EXPERIMENT TO ASSESS OUTCOMES OF EDUCATIONAL POLICY", Harrison, G.W., Carpenter, J. and List, J.A. (Ed.) Field Experiments in Economics (Research in Experimental Economics, Vol. 10), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 291-335. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0193-2306(04)10008-2