# **Table 2. Description of Treatments**

|_Tr_|_eatment 1-School incentive: Incentivizing remote schools for collecting textbooks in nine districts_|
|---|---|
|-<br>-<br>-|It is announced to DEBS and the remote schools that (i) incentive amounts of K 700 (US$50) shall<br>be disbursed to each remote school when staff from the school collect textbooks within four weeks<br>of receipt of an official notice to collect textbooks from a DEBS office; (ii) if remote school staff<br>collect the textbooks after four weeks but before eight weeks after receipt of an official notice of<br>textbook collection from the DEBS, K 400 (US$28) shall be disbursed to that remote school. The<br>list of remote schools in each treatment district was shared by the MoGE.<br>All DEBS received an up-front grant of K 7,800<sup>2</sup>for the distribution of textbooks.<br>In addition, the MoGE head office managed the information and communication on textbook<br>availability to individual schools through phone calls, group text messages with WhatsApp, and<br>official emails and letters.|
|_Tr_|_eatment 2- DEBS incentive: Incentivizing DEBS to deliver textbooks to schools in nine districts_|
|-<br>-<br>-|It was announced to DEBS that K 325 (US$23) per remote school and K 180 (US$13) per non-<br>remote school shall be disbursed to the office if DEBS delivered textbooks to the assigned schools<br>within 1 month of receipt of textbooks from MoGE.<br>All DEBS received an up-front grant of K 7,800 for the distribution of textbooks.<br>In addition, the MoGE head office managed the information and communication on textbook<br>availability to individual schools through phone calls, group text messages with WhatsApp, and<br>official emails and letters.|
|_Co_|_ntrol: Information and communication to all schools in nine districts_|
|-<br>-|All DEBS received up-front grants of K 7,800 for distributing their textbooks.<br>In addition, the MoGE head office managed the information and communication on textbook<br>availability to individual schools through phone calls, group text messages with WhatsApp, and<br>officialemails andletters.|

Average cost was K 513 per school for the school incentive group and K 280 per school for the DEBS incentive group. This excludes the up-front grants for all districts. In addition, a total of K 4,000 (K 2.8 per school) was spent on the calls/text messages and group WhatsApp messages to schools to announce the availability of textbooks and the interventions for selected districts.

# **Data and Measurement**

# _Survey sample_

Originally, a baseline survey was conducted in a nationally representative sample of schools and their assigned DEBS with a two-stage stratified cluster design. During the survey in November and December 2017, information on distribution and availability of Grade 2 textbooks procured in 2016 was collected. Prior to the baseline survey, calls were made to DEBS offices to enquire about the distribution status of Grade 2 textbooks. Based on the information collected, the sample size of 225 schools was determined with a minimum detectable effect of 35–40 percent increase in probability of receiving the textbooks within one month upon being made available. The school samples were randomly drawn from 45 randomly selected districts in Zambia.

However, due to the unexpected changes in textbook procurement and distribution schedule described earlier in Section 3, the study had to shift its focus to the last 27 districts that had not received Grade 4

> 2 This is to reflect the inflation and to evaluate results-based finance schemes compared to the status quo of underfunded up-front grants from the MoGe.

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