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Abstract
The role of school quality in determining educational outcomes has received much
research attention in the United States. However, in developing countries, where a
significant part of the school age population never attends school, policymakers must
consider both quality and quantity when deciding how to maximize the impact of scarce
investments. Acknowledging this difference in the policy environment in developing
countries, this paper provides comparative estimates of the impact of quality versus
quantity investments in school supply in rural Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest
countries. Policy simulations show that improving school quality (through the pupil-teacher
ratio) increases grade attainment and efficiency by approximately 9 percent with
no impact on overall enrollment rates. However, these same results can be generated by
increasing starting enrollment probabilities through the establishment of new schools in all
rural villages that currently do not have schools. Furthermore, similar rates of increase in
school achievement indicators can be achieved by building schools in only 56 percent of all
villages currently without schools, provided these schools are placed in those villages that
also do not have a school nearby. When cost information is considered, the main policy
implication is that the expansion of school quantity through well-targeted placement of
new schools will provide the greatest increase in educational outcomes for Mozambique at
this time.