Pitfalls of Participatory Programs: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in Education in India
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Participation of beneficiaries in the monitoring of public services is increasingly seen as a key to improving their quality. We conducted a randomized evaluation of three interventions to encourage beneficiaries' participation to India: providing information on existing institutions, training community members in a testing tool for children, and training volunteers to hold remedial reading camps. These interventions had no impact on community involvement, teacher effort, or learning outcomes inside the school. However, in the third intervention, youth volunteered to teach camps, and children who attended substantially improved their reading skills. This suggests that citizens face constraints in influencing public services. (JEL H52, I21, I28, O15)
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Interventions might also have indirect effects such as improved public integrity, improved quality or quantity of specific public services.
“We are aware that, besides more direct impacts such as the reduction in the level of specific forms of corruption, interventions might also have indirect effects such as improved public integrity, improved quality or quantity of specific public services (Banerjee et al., 2010; Björkman & Svensson, 2009).”
From Public sector reforms and their impact on the level of corruption: A systematic review (2021) · cites this paper as Banerjee et al., 2010
The introduction reports that a community-mobilization intervention improved the quality of health facilities, supporting the possibility of effects on public-service quality. But this paper does not establish improved public integrity or service quantity, and its Intervention Results report no change in public-school resources; the reading gains came from camps outside the school system (no page numbers supplied). (LLM, conf=0.82)
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References 9 · Cited by 362
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- Authors
- Banerjee, A. V., Banerji, R., Duflo, E., Glennerster, R., & Khemani, S.
- Affiliations
- National Bureau of Economic Research (US)
- Pratham (IN)
- Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (US)
- World Bank (US)
- Venue
- American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
- Publisher
- American Economic Association
- Published
- 2010-02-01
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-30
- ISSN
- 1945-7731 (ISSN-L)
- 1945-774X
- OpenAlex
- W2890682736
- Cited by
- 362
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 52 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 50 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 29.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- American Economic Journal Economic Policy (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Public Administration in Developing Nations
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Evaluation and Performance Assessment
- Keywords
- beneficiary participation, participatory monitoring, public service quality, community participation, reading skills, teacher effort, learning outcomes, youth volunteers, information provision, India
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