HOUSEHOLD DECISION-MAKING
LEAPS research examines how families access and respond to information, allocate resources, and interact with policymakers to shape children’s educational outcomes. These studies reveal the powerful influence of parental expectations, maternal education, and access to school quality information on student achievement, motivation, and enrollment decisions. The findings highlight the dynamic relationship between households, schools, and education markets, showing that informed, engaged families can drive both school improvement and accountability.
Grade Repetition and Household Responses
Authors: Tahir Andrabi, Ethan Matlin, Gabrielle Vasey
Citation: Andrabi, Tahir, Ethan Matlin, and Gabrielle Vasey. 2025. “Grade Repetition and Household Responses in a Low Income Setting”, Working Paper.
Questions and Findings
What are the academic, psychological, and household effects of grade repetition for primary school students, and do these effects differ between government and private schools?
Grade Repetition Lowers Academic Performance: Students who repeated a grade scored 0.27 to 0.44 standard deviations lower in math, English, and Urdu compared to their promoted peers.
Increased Dropout Risk for Repeaters: Grade retention raised the likelihood of dropping out by 7.1 percentage points relative to similar students who advanced.
Parents Reduce Expectations and Investments: After a child is held back, parents revise downward their educational expectations, beliefs about the child’s potential, and their investments in the child’s education.
Students Become Discouraged: Repeating a grade lowers students’ beliefs in the value of their own study effort and decreases motivation.
Why This Matters
Grade repetition, while intended as a remedial support, instead imposes a sharp academic penalty, students lose nearly half a standard deviation in test performance and face a markedly increased risk of dropping out. These quantifiable setbacks are not explained by differences in health, background, or teacher judgment, pointing directly to the practice of repetition as the critical driver.
This evidence signals to education policymakers that current promotion policies may substantially worsen the trajectories of at-risk children and increase educational inequality, calling for urgent reevaluation and alternatives to automatic grade retention.
Improving Public Education through Citizen Participation
Authors: Asim I. Khwaja, Saher Asad, Tiffany Simon
Citation: Forthcoming
Questions
Can community-based mobilization interventions increase citizen participation in public education and improve accountability of government service providers in Pakistan?
What is the comparative effectiveness of different types of policy actor engagement on improving public school outcomes?
Why This Matters
Strong public service delivery depends on active citizen engagement, yet bureaucratic complexity and limited information often leave communities disconnected from policy decisions that affect their daily lives. By testing innovative collective action strategies to mobilize citizens in Pakistan’s education sector, this study informs how non-electoral participation can enhance government accountability and responsiveness.
The approach provides a model for policymakers in similar low-trust environments, revealing how targeted community interventions may drive systemic improvements even where political or institutional barriers have traditionally limited citizen influence.
Parental School Report Cards
Authors: Tahir Andrabi, Jishnu Das, Asim I. Khwaja
Citation: Andrabi, Tahir, Jishnu Das, and Asim I. Khwaja. 2017. "Report Cards: The Impact of Providing School and Child Test Scores on Education Markets." American Economic Review, 107 (6): 1535-63.
Questions and Findings
What happens when households and schools receive report cards with village-level student and school test scores? Can better information about school quality affect achievement, fees, and enrollment in public and private schools?
Improved Student Achievement: Providing school report cards increased subsequent test scores by 0.11 standard deviations.
Reduced Private School Fees: Private school fees decreased by 17% in villages that received report cards, as schools could no longer use high fees as a signal for high quality.
Higher Primary School Enrollment: Primary school enrollment rose by 4.5% as more parents enrolled their children.
Market Response: Lower-performing private schools improved their efforts or lost students, and the worst schools even closed. Public schools also improved test scores and increased enrollment.
Why This Matters
Information gaps in education markets can prevent families from making informed school choices and weaken market competition, particularly in low-income settings where families very carefully weigh the cost of schooling. Providing clear, comparative information about school and student performance empowers households to make enrollment decisions, drives positive academic outcomes, and reduces costs for families.
This study — which was highly cost effective at only $1 per child — demonstrates that even simple information interventions can reshape incentives for schools, stimulate competition, and increase access, offering actionable insights for policymakers considering how to improve education systems in similar contexts.
Maternal Education and Child Outcomes
Authors: Tahir Andrabi, Jishnu Das, Asim I. Khwaja
Citation: Andrabi, Tahir, Jishnu Das, and Asim I. Khwaja. 2011. "What Did You Do All Day? Maternal Education and Child Outcomes." The Journal of Human Resources, 47 (4): 873-912.
Questions and Findings
Does having an educated mother, even with low levels of schooling, improve children's educational outcomes and learning environment in Pakistan?
Maternal Education Boosts Children’s Study Time: Children of mothers with some education spend 72 more minutes per day on educational activities at home.
More Maternal Involvement with Schoolwork: Educated mothers devote more time to helping their children with schoolwork.
Higher Test Scores for Children of Educated Mothers: In the tested subsample, children whose mothers have some education score 0.23–0.35 standard deviations higher.
No Effect on Power or Enrollment: Maternal education did not increase mothers’ decision-making, school enrollment rates, or general spending for children.
Why This Matters
Maternal education can play a transformative role in children’s learning, even in low-income contexts where mothers may have only a few years of schooling. By directly shaping the home learning environment, mothers’ education leads to greater study time and more family support for children’s education, translating into improved test performance. These results highlight the far-reaching value of investing in girls’ education, not only for their individual empowerment, but also for the human capital of the next generation.
Expanding educational opportunities for women is therefore a strategic policy lever for breaking cycles of disadvantage and promoting broader social and economic development.