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dc.titleThe Promise and Limits of Digital Nudges: Personalized School Recommendations in Recife’s Centralized Admission Platform
dc.contributor.authorElacqua, Gregory
dc.contributor.authorKutscher, Macarena
dc.contributor.authorNascimento, Danielle
dc.contributor.authorDias, Isabella
dc.contributor.authorMargitic, Juan Francisco
dc.contributor.orgunitEducation Division
dc.coverageBrazil
dc.date.available2025-11-25T00:11:00
dc.date.issue2025-11-19T00:11:00
dc.description.abstractDespite improvements in access to information, digital platforms, and centralized school admission systems, many parents continue to choose seemingly lower-quality schools, often prioritizing proximity over academic performance. We examine the role of information provision in this context through a randomized controlled trial (RCT) within the centralized admission platform of Recife, Brazil testing whether personalized school recommendations influence parental choice. Specifically, we implemented two treatment arms: one offering recommendations that ranked schools by quality within a defined distance (quality treatment), and another ranking schools solely by proximity (distance treatment). While the overall impact of the treatments was limited, we do find meaningful positive effects among users who actively engaged (”compliers”) with the recommendations (1424% of families). Compliers in the quality treatment were more likely to select higher-performing schools, particularly among first-grade applicants and families without strong prior preferences. These findings underscore both the promise of digital nudges in improving school choices and the challenges of deploying such tools in recently centralized systems, where many families enter with preset preferences and limited familiarity with the process.
dc.format.extent55
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0013854
dc.identifier.urlhttps://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/The-Promise-and-Limits-of-Digital-Nudges-Personalized-School-Recommendations-in-Recifes-Centralized-Admission-Platform.pdf
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherInter-American Development Bank
dc.subjectNudge
dc.subjectDigital Technology
dc.subjectPerson with Disability
dc.subjectEducation
dc.subjectDigital Skill
dc.subjectChildhood
dc.subjectEquality
dc.subject.jelcodeI21 - Analysis of Education
dc.subject.jelcodeI24 - Education and Inequality
dc.subject.jelcodeI28 - Government Policy
dc.subject.jelcodeD83 - Search • Learning • Information and Knowledge • Communication • Belief • Unawareness
dc.subject.jelcodeC93 - Field Experiments
dc.subject.keywordsschool choice;Information Provision;Digital Nudges;Randomized Controlled Trials;Centralized Admission Systems;Parental School Choice Behavior;Digital Nudges and Engagement;Challenges in Centralized Admission;Decision.making;Education, childhood, equality
dc.typeWorking Papers
idb.identifier.pubnumberIDB-WP-01782
idb.operationRG-E1957
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