Crossing the Finish Line: Intervening in a Critical Period for Educational Investment

早育在低收入女大学生中很常见，导致这些学生的辍学率很高，即使有计划生育服务。 该奖项资助的研究使用现场实验和现代经济理论来测试两种低成本干预措施是否能有效降低这些学生因计划外怀孕而辍学的比例。 第一个实验测试了将经济激励与定向信息运动相结合是否可以改变人们对早年推迟生育与晚年不育之间联系的看法。 第二个实验测试向女学生提供无条件现金转移是否会减少这些学生的危险行为，从而提高毕业率。 除了对经济学做出贡献外，这项研究的结果还将为政策制定者提供信息，说明如何最好地确保进入大学的才华横溢的妇女能够毕业并加入劳动力队伍。这项研究的结果将有助于提高女性劳动力的质量，提高劳动生产率，经济增长和一般生活水平。 该奖项资助的研究将原始数据收集与行政数据和随机对照试验相结合，以研究两种干预措施在降低低收入女大学生辍学率方面的有效性。 第一个实验测量干预措施的影响，针对普遍认为避孕药的使用会导致不孕不育以后的生活;治疗相结合的现金转移有针对性的信息传递，并比较这种治疗的非强制性的有条件现金转移计划，旨在让妇女到计划生育诊所。 这种方法将允许PI建立因果关系;以前的研究没有做到这一点。 第二个随机对照试验将衡量UCT对女学生的影响，以了解它是否减少了这些学生作为应对经济困难机制的危险行为。 除了对发展经济学文献作出贡献外，这项研究的结果还将为提高女生毕业率的政策提供投入。 其结果将有助于改善人力资本形成、提高生产力、促进经济增长和改善所有人的生活水平。 该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Early fertility is common among low-income female university students resulting in high dropout rates among these students even though family planning services are available. This award funds research that uses field experiments and modern economic theory to test whether two low-cost interventions will be effective in reducing dropout rates due to unplanned pregnancies among these students. The first experiment tests whether combining financial incentives with directed information campaign can change beliefs about the perceived link between delaying childbirth earlier in life and infertility in later life. The second experiment tests whether providing female students with unconditional cash transfer will reduce risky behavior among these students and thus increase graduation rates. In addition to contribution to economics science, the results of this research will inform policy makers on how best to ensure that highly talented women who enter universities are able to graduate and join the labor force. The results of this research will contribute to improving the quality of the female labor force, increase labor productivity, economic growth, and the general standard of living. This award funds research that combines original data collection with administrative data with RCTs to study the effectiveness of two interventions in reducing dropout rates among low-income female university students. The first experiment measures the impact of an intervention that targets the pervasive belief that contraceptive use causes infertility later in life; the treatment combines cash transfers with targeted information delivery and compares this treatment to a non-coercive conditional cash transfer program designed to get women to a family planning clinic. This approach will allow the PIs to establish causality; something previous research has not done. The second RCT will measure the impact of UCT to female students to see if it reduces risky behavior of these students as coping mechanisms for financial hardships. Besides contribution to the development economics literature, the results of this research will provide inputs into policies to increase graduation of female students. The results would contribute to improved human capital formation, increased productivity, economic growth, and improved living standards for all. The research results could also decrease income inequality.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.