Sustainability of the IDB financed longitudinal randomized control trial “Closing Gaps”

implementation

The objective of this TC is to ensure the long-term sustainability and continued relevance of the "Closing Gaps" project by maintaining updated participant information, gathering new data on critical social and economic topics, and generating policy-relevant research on the impact of educational quality on labor market outcomes and crime-related attitudes and behaviors. The specific objectives of the TC are: (i) Ensure the sustainability of CG. The importance to the Bank of ensuring that this project is sustained for the foreseeable future stems from the unique information that the project can provide, on the impact of classroom characteristics in elementary school on medium- and long-term variables, and the correlations over time among a vast number of characteristics of vulnerable children, adolescents and young adults along their lifetime. Having this information places the Bank in an inimitable position to provide policy-relevant evidence for Ecuador and the broader Latin American and the Caribbean region. (ii) Collect new information on key topics related to labor market participation, exposure/participation in crime activities, risky behaviors, migration, domestic violence and teen pregnancy. (iii) Conduct research to address critical questions regarding the impact of classroom quality, and other correlates, on medium- and long-term outcomes, including initial labor market conditions (e.g. first job or initial wages) and exposure or participation in criminal activities.