Information Technology and Student Achievement: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Ecuador

This paper studies the effects of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the school environment on educational achievement. To quantify these effects, the impact is evaluated of a project run by the municipality of Guayaquil, Ecuador, which provides computer-aided instruction in mathematics and language to students in primary schools. Using an experimental design, it is found that the program had a positive impact on mathematics test scores (about 0.30 of a standard deviation) and a negative but statistically insignificant effect on language test scores. The impact is heterogeneous and is much larger for those students at the top of the achievement distribution.Information and communications technology, Education, Experimental design, Ecuador

Remittances for Development?: A Case Study of the Impact of Remittances on Human Development in Ecuador

This paper analyses the impact of remittances on a set of human development variables in Ecuador. Prepared by Juan Ponce (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales – FLACSO, Ecuador) and Iliana Olivié (Elcano Royal Institute’s Senior Analyst on International Cooperation and Development), it is focused on education and health indicators, as well on some other consumption variables. Although the authors find positive impacts on consumption, and on education and health expenditures, they find no significant results on education and health outcomes. Regarding education, they find that children receiving remittances have a higher probability of attending private schools. In relation to health, people receiving remittances buy more medicines and likely have more complete medical treatment in case of illness. To create an exogenous source of identification the paper uses a new and rich data set

Information Technology and Student Achievement: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Ecuador

This paper studies the effects of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the school environment on educational achievement. To quantify these effects, the impact is evaluated of a project run by the municipality of Guayaquil, Ecuador, which provides computer-aided instruction in mathematics and language to students in primary schools. Using an experimental design, it is found that the program had a positive impact on mathematics test scores (about 0. 30 of a standard deviation) and a negative but statistically insignificant effect on language test scores. The impact is heterogeneous and is much larger for those students at the top of the achievement distribution

Impacto del uso de TIC`s en logros académicos : evidencia en Guayaquil - Ecuador

Resulta muy interesante investigar en qué medida, el uso de las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TICs) en el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje, contribuyen a mejorar la calidad de la educación. En este sentido, el presente estudio constituye un aporte al debate de este tema en el Ecuador. La investigación analiza específicamente el Programa Más Tecnología, que se basa en una propuesta pedagógica que incorpora el uso de herramientas tecnológicas (software y hardware) al proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje

Programas formativos y empresariales dirigidos al emprendimiento de los jóvenes en el Ecuador.

La investigación inicia abordando temas como educación, empleo y financiamiento, pues constituyen variables influyentes para el emprendimiento empresarial de las y los jóvenes, que actualmente son la mayor parte de la población económicamente activa en el Ecuador. A continuación se presenta la revisión de las fases de un emprendedor, su inicio, sus características y su ejercicio para la formación de una empresa; además de una descripción de programas y políticas de distintos sectores que promueven el emprendimiento en el Ecuador sustentada en la revisión de información proveniente de diversas fuentes. En otro capítulo, se expone un análisis descriptivo que pretende identificar al emprendedor juvenil en la etapa de puesta en marcha de su negocio, tomando como base la encuesta de Condiciones de Vida del 2006 elaborada por el INEC. El estudio procura realizar un aporte en el campo del emprendimiento y contribuir al diagnóstico para la definición de acciones en términos de políticas tendientes a promover un entorno propicio para su desarrollo empresarial

Can Provision of Free School Uniforms harm Attendance? Evidence from Ecuador

To raise school attendance, many programs in developing countries eliminate orreduce private contributions to education. This paper documents an unintendednegative effect of such programs. Using data from a randomized experiment thatprovides free uniforms to primary school children in Ecuador, we find that the interventionhas a significantly negative impact on attendance. An explanation is thatparents who pay for their children’s uniforms (the control group) feel more committedto the school than parents who got the uniforms for free (the treated) andtherefore encourage their children to attend school. Consistent with this sunk costeffect, we find that the impact is largest shortly after the purchase of the uniform,and during the end-of-year exam period when more is at stake.Uniforms, school attendance, sunk-cost effect, Ecuador