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dc.titleHumans versus Chatbots: Scaling-up behavioral interventions to reduce teacher shortages
dc.contributor.authorAjzenman, Nicolás
dc.contributor.authorElacqua, Gregory
dc.contributor.authorJaimovich, Analia
dc.contributor.authorPérez-Nuñez, Graciela
dc.contributor.orgunitEducation Division
dc.coverageChile
dc.date.available2023-08-11T00:08:00
dc.date.issue2023-07-01T00:07:00
dc.description.abstractEmpirical results in economics often stem from success in controlled experimental settings, but often fail when scaled up. This study presents a behavioral intervention and a scalable equivalent aimed at reducing teacher shortages by motivating high school students to pursue an education degree. The intervention was delivered through WhatsApp chats by trained human promoters (humans arm) and rule-based Chatbots programmed to closely replicate the humans program (bots arm). Results show that the humans arm successfully increased high-school students demand for and enrollment in education majors, particularly among high-performing students. The bots arm showed positive but smaller and statistically insignificant effects. These findings indicate that a relatively low-cost intervention can effectively reduce teacher shortages, but scaling up such interventions may have limitations. Therefore,testing scalable solutions during the design stage of experiments is crucial.
dc.format.extent48
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0005059
dc.identifier.urlhttps://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Humans-versus-Chatbots-Scaling-up-behavioral-interventions-to-reduce-teacher-shortages.pdf
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherInter-American Development Bank
dc.subjectEducation
dc.subjectTeacher
dc.subjectHigh School
dc.subjectEducation Policy
dc.subjectTeacher Distribution
dc.subjectLearning and Teaching Program
dc.subjectEducational Institution
dc.subjectBehavioral Economics
dc.subjectHigher Education
dc.subjectSocial Science
dc.subjectEconomy
dc.subjectTeacher Education
dc.subject.jelcodeD91 - Intertemporal Household Choice • Life Cycle Models and Saving
dc.subject.jelcodeI23 - Higher Education • Research Institutions
dc.subject.jelcodeI25 - Education and Economic Development
dc.subject.keywordsTeachers;Teacher policy;teacher shortages;scale-up;behavioral;bots
dc.typeWorking Papers
idb.identifier.pubnumberIDB-WP-01501
idb.operationRG-E1672
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