Inentives and Education: Experimental Evidence from Medellin, Colombia
type: CreativeWork
description: This research uses an experimental design to investigate how incentive structure influences goal achievement among disadvantaged high school students in Medellin, Colombia. Of particular interest is how treatment effects influence school performance as well as how this may vary with differing key characteristics of the participants. Medellin, Colombia, like much of South America suffers from high levels of inequality in the city proper. Improving educational outcomes in impoverished neighborhoods is essential for the growth of these neighborhoods and the greater community in which they are located. The model used in this experiment is inspired by the Family Independence Initiative (FII). This research finds that conditional incentives in particular play a significant role in determining the achievement of objectives and that those participants in the conditional incentive treatment tend to perform better after the conclusion of the experiment.
abstract: This research uses an experimental design to investigate how incentive structure influences goal achievement among disadvantaged high school students in Medellin, Colombia. Of particular interest is how treatment effects influence school performance as well as how this may vary with differing key characteristics of the participants. Medellin, Colombia, like much of South America suffers from high levels of inequality in the city proper. Improving educational outcomes in impoverished neighborhoods is essential for the growth of these neighborhoods and the greater community in which they are located. The model used in this experiment is inspired by the Family Independence Initiative (FII). This research finds that conditional incentives in particular play a significant role in determining the achievement of objectives and that those participants in the conditional incentive treatment tend to perform better after the conclusion of the experiment.
author: Wisinski, Theodore D
author: Cassar, Alessandra
keywords: Education, Incentives, Goals, Experimental, Economics, Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Other Education
date published: 2017-05-19T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:44:00Z
provider: University of San Francisco
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of San Francisco