Seminar by Sabyasachi Das (Ahmedabad University)

Centre for Development Economics
Department of Economics
Delhi School of Economics

ANNOUNCE A SEMINAR

by

Venue: Amex Room

Abstract:-
We examine whether higher family income affects the type of schools attended by the children. We utilize a 2008 reform in the universal old age pension program initiated in Bolivia – a pioneer in pension policy in Latin America, and access individual level census data for the entire population of the country along with other administrative datasets to estimate our effect. We show that the treated households are significantly more likely to enroll their primary school age children in private schools in the post-policy period, even though there is no overall effect on enrollment. There is no such effect among the secondary school age children. The effect is primarily driven by higher educated households. We show that aggregate enrollment and average student performance in standardized tests increase in private schools relative to public schools in response to the policy. The performance effect results from higher quality students sorting into private schools, rather than improved learning. The findings highlight that higher income enables families to choose better-quality schools for their children, suggesting that school quality is a normal good, especially for higher educated families.

All are cordially invited.

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