Sabarwal, ShwetlenaEvans, David K.Marshak, Anastasia2014-10-022014-10-022014-09https://hdl.handle.net/10986/20339A textbook provision program in Sierra Leone demonstrates how volatility in the flow of government-provided learning inputs to schools can induce storage of these inputs by school administrators to smooth future consumption. This process in turn leads to low current utilization of inputs for student learning. A randomized trial of a public program providing textbooks to primary schools had modest positive impacts on teacher behavior but no impacts on student performance. In many treatment schools, student access to textbooks did not actually increase because a large majority of the books were stored rather than distributed to students. At the same time, the propensity to save books was positively correlated with uncertainty on the part of head teachers regarding government transfers of books. The evidence suggests that schools that have high uncertainty with respect to future transfers are more likely to store a high proportion of current transfers. These results show that reducing uncertainty in school input flows could result in higher current input use for student learning. For effective program design, public policy programs must take forward-looking behavior among intermediate actors into account.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOACADEMIC YEARACCESS TO INFORMATIONACCESS TO TEXTBOOKSASSIGNMENT TO TREATMENTAVERAGE TEST SCORESCLASS TEACHERCLASS TEACHERSCLASS TEACHINGCLASSROOMCLASSROOM BEHAVIORCLASSROOM LEVELCLASSROOM MANAGEMENTCLASSROOM RATIOCLASSROOM TEACHERCLASSROOM TEACHERSCLASSROOM VISITSCLASSROOMSCOMMUNITY PARTICIPATIONCOMMUNITY SCHOOLSCONSTRUCTION OF SCHOOLSCORE TEXTBOOKSDECENTRALIZATIONDISPLACEMENT OF TEACHERSDISTRICT EDUCATIONECONOMIC GROWTHEDUCATION FEESEDUCATION FOR ALLEDUCATION MANAGEMENTEDUCATION OFFICERSEDUCATION SECTOREDUCATION SPENDINGEDUCATION SYSTEMEDUCATIONAL OUTCOMESEXAMEXAMSFORMAL EDUCATIONGERGIRLSGROSS ENROLLMENTGROSS ENROLLMENT RATEHEAD TEACHERHEAD TEACHERSHEAD-TEACHERSHOMEWORKINTERVENTIONSJUNIOR SECONDARYJUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLJUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLSLEARNING MATERIALSLEARNING OUTCOMESLESSON PLANSLITERACYLITERACY TESTLITERACY TESTSLITERATUREMINISTRY OF EDUCATIONNUMBER OF SCHOOLSNUMBER OF STUDENTSNUMBER OF TEACHERSNUMBER OF TEXTBOOKSNUMERACYOPEN ACCESSPAMPHLETSPAPERSPAYMENT OF TEACHERSPERFORMANCE IN MATHEMATICSPERFORMANCE OF STUDENTSPHYSICAL PUNISHMENTPRIMARY COMPLETIONPRIMARY COMPLETION RATEPRIMARY EDUCATIONPRIMARY SCHOOLPRIMARY SCHOOL EXAMINATIONPRIMARY SCHOOLSPRINCIPALSPRIVATE EDUCATIONPRIVATE SCHOOLSPROVISION OF TEXTBOOKSQUALIFIED TEACHERSQUALITY EDUCATIONREADINGRELIGIOUS SCHOOLSREMOTE SCHOOLSRURAL AREASSCHOOL ADMINISTRATORSSCHOOL FEESSCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURESCHOOL LEVELSCHOOL MANAGEMENTSCHOOL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEESCHOOL UNIFORMSSCHOOL-COHORTSCHOOLINGSCHOOLSSOCIAL STUDIESSPORTSSTUDENT ACCESSSTUDENT ATTENDANCESTUDENT ENROLLMENTSTUDENT LEARNINGSTUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMESSTUDENT OUTCOMESSTUDENT PERFORMANCESTUDENT PROGRESSSTUDENT TEACHER RATIOSTUDENT-TEACHER RATIOSUBJECTSTEACHERTEACHER BEHAVIORTEACHER BEHAVIORSTEACHER EXPECTATIONSTEACHER MOTIVATIONTEACHER QUALITYTEACHER TEACHERTEACHER TRAININGTEACHERSTEACHINGTEACHING MATERIALSTENURETEST SCORESTEXTBOOKTEXTBOOK DELIVERYTEXTBOOK DISTRIBUTIONTEXTBOOK PROVISIONTEXTBOOKSTUITIONTUITION FEESUNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATIONUSE OF TEXTBOOKSVISITS TO CLASSROOMSVOUCHERSYOUTH10.1596/1813-9450-7021