Essays in education economics

Guide(s)

Sahoo, Soham; Banerjee, Ritwik

Department

Public Policy

Area

Public Policy

University

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

Place

Bangalore

Publication Date

3-31-2025

Year Awarded

March 2025

Year Completed

March 2025

Year Registered

June 2019

Abstract

We investigate the role of political favouritism in the private education market. Using a close election regression discontinuity design, we estimate the causal effect of having a ruling party aligned politician on the growth of private educational institutions in India. We utilize constituency-level panel data on private and government educational institutions matched with the electoral outcomes of all state assembly elections held between 2005 and 2016. We find that constituencies represented by politicians aligned with the state ruling party have a higher growth rate in the number of private schools compared to those with non-aligned representatives. However, we do not observe any significant effect on the growth rate of government schools. Similar patterns are also found for higher education institutions. Our analysis suggests that the driving mechanism behind this phenomenon may lie in political influence over bureaucratic processes and discrepancies in the enforcement of government regulations. Furthermore, our result shows that these private schools may not necessarily offer better quality education. We analyze how restricted access to microfinance by households affects children’s learning outcomes, utilizing a unique natural experiment that halted all microfinance operations in Andhra Pradesh (AP), India, in 2010. The analysis exploits quasi-random variation in district-level exposure to the shock in states excluding AP, as the regulation affected lenders’ liquidity nationwide. Using difference-in-differences and event study designs, we find a significant and persistent decline in children’s learning outcomes. As plausible mechanisms, we find a shift in enrollment from private to government schools, lower household spending on education, reduced food expenditure impacting nutrition, and a decline in mothers’ employment potentially affecting intra-household resource allocation. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the adverse effects are more prominent for girls and younger children. By focusing on the effects of regulatory restrictions rather than microfinance service provision, this study complements existing literature and provides a more comprehensive understanding of the socioeconomic impacts of microfinance. This study examines the impact of children’s exposure to floods during their formative years (ages 0-16) on their educational achievements. Unlike previous studies in the literature, which typically focus on case studies evaluating the impact of specific shocks, this study adopts a comprehensive approach by analyzing the effects of all floods individuals face during their early phases of life. Additionally, this study looks at intergenerational transmission of shocks: the impact on children born to mothers who had been exposed to floods during their early years of life (ages 0-16). The analysis reveals that early-life exposure to floods adversely affects educational outcomes, with a significant decline in math proficiency if they are exposed to floods during the preschool years (ages 3–5). The heterogeneity analysis reveals that children from less-developed states and districts with infrequent flood occurrences are most affected. Furthermore, the results suggest the transmission of shocks across generations, showing that children whose mothers were exposed to floods experience lower levels of human capital accumulation.

Pagination

viii, 202p.

Copyright

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

Document Type

Dissertation

DAC Chairperson

Sahoo, Soham; Banerjee, Ritwik

DAC Members

Dasgupta, Kunal

Type of Degree

Ph.D.

Relation

DIS-IIMB-FPM-P25-08

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