Do Additional School Grants Narrow Regional Learning Gaps? Evidence from Ethiopia's Emerging Regions

We examine whether a top-up school grant for Ethiopia's emerging regions, introduced under GEQIP-E in 2018/19, narrowed mathematics learning gaps. Difference-in-differences estimates using Grade 4 data from the RISE Ethiopia survey (2018/19–2021/22) show relative gains of 0.42–0.52 standard deviations, largest among rural and poorer children. Results hold with regional controls, gain scores, school-level models and school fixed effects, but shrink under region-specific trends. About half of each gain reflects emerging regions avoiding a post-2018 decline elsewhere, so the estimates are upper bounds for the top-up alone. School leadership, community participation and teacher knowledge appear to be key channels.