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Infrastructure and Girls’ Education: Bicycles, Roads, and the Gender Education Gap in India

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  • Moritz Seebacher

Abstract

How can infrastructure help to reduce the gender education gap in developing countries? In this paper, I analyze the complementarity of all-weather roads and a bicycle program in Bihar, India, which aimed to increase girls’ secondary school enrollment rate. Using Indian household survey data combined with a quadrupledifference estimation strategy, I find that the program’s main beneficiaries are girls living at least 3km away from secondary schools whose villages are connected with all-weather roads. Their net secondary school enrollment rate increased by over 87 percent, reducing the respective gender education gap by around 45 percent. I find no effect for girls living in villages without an all-weather road, suggesting that allweather roads are not just complementary to the bicycle program but a precondition for its success. The findings highlight the importance of well-functioning infrastructure for the accessibility of secondary schools and the empowering of girls in India.

Suggested Citation

  • Moritz Seebacher, 2022. "Infrastructure and Girls’ Education: Bicycles, Roads, and the Gender Education Gap in India," ifo Working Paper Series 382, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ifowps:_382
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Roads; bicycles; infrastructure; girls’ education; gender education gap; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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