IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/edecon/v24y2016i5p465-480.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of private secondary schooling on cognitive skills: evidence from India

Author

Listed:
  • Mehtabul Azam
  • Geeta Kingdon
  • Kin Bing Wu

Abstract

We examine the effect of attending private secondary school on educational achievement, as measured by students' scores in a comprehensive standardized math test, in two Indian states: Orissa and Rajasthan. We use propensity score matching (PSM) to control for any systematic differences between students attending private secondary schools and public secondary schools, and assess the sensitivity of our estimates with respect to unobservables using the Rosenbaum bounds. We find that students in private schools in rural (urban) Rajasthan scored about 1.3 (0.4) standard deviation (SD) higher than their counterparts in the public schools. Importantly, the positive private school impact in rural (urban) Rajasthan survives a large (moderate) amount of positive selection on unobservables. We do not find statistically significant difference in urban Orissa, while a positive impact of 0.3 SD in rural Orissa is susceptible to small amount of positive selection on unobservables.

Suggested Citation

  • Mehtabul Azam & Geeta Kingdon & Kin Bing Wu, 2016. "Impact of private secondary schooling on cognitive skills: evidence from India," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5), pages 465-480, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:edecon:v:24:y:2016:i:5:p:465-480
    DOI: 10.1080/09645292.2015.1110116
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09645292.2015.1110116
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09645292.2015.1110116?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nazmul Chaudhury & Jeffrey Hammer & Michael Kremer & Karthik Muralidharan & F. Halsey Rogers, 2006. "Missing in Action: Teacher and Health Worker Absence in Developing Countries," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 91-116, Winter.
    2. Joseph G. Altonji & Todd E. Elder & Christopher R. Taber, 2005. "Selection on Observed and Unobserved Variables: Assessing the Effectiveness of Catholic Schools," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 151-184, February.
    3. Barbara Sianesi, 2004. "An Evaluation of the Swedish System of Active Labor Market Programs in the 1990s," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 133-155, February.
    4. William N. Evans & Robert M. Schwab, 1995. "Finishing High School and Starting College: Do Catholic Schools Make a Difference?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(4), pages 941-974.
    5. Sangeeta Goyal, 2009. "Inside the house of learning: the relative performance of public and private schools in Orissa," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 315-327.
    6. Vandenberghe, V. & Robin, S., 2004. "Evaluating the effectiveness of private education across countries: a comparison of methods," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 487-506, August.
    7. Das, Jishnu & Zajonc, Tristan, 2010. "India shining and Bharat drowning: Comparing two Indian states to the worldwide distribution in mathematics achievement," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 175-187, July.
    8. Kingdon, Geeta & Teal, Francis, 2010. "Teacher unions, teacher pay and student performance in India: A pupil fixed effects approach," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 278-288, March.
    9. Singh, Abhijeet, 2015. "Private school effects in urban and rural India: Panel estimates at primary and secondary school ages," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 16-32.
    10. World Bank, 2009. "Secondary Education in India : Universalizing Opportunity," World Bank Publications - Reports 3042, The World Bank Group.
    11. David Newhouse & Kathleen Beegle, 2006. "The Effect of School Type on Academic Achievement: Evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(3).
    12. World Bank, 2009. "Secondary Education in India : Universalizing Opportunity," World Bank Publications - Reports 3041, The World Bank Group.
    13. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, 2007. "The progress of school education in India," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 23(2), pages 168-195, Summer.
    14. Kin Bing Wu & Pete Goldschmidt & Christy Kim Boscardin & Deepa Sankar, 2009. "International benchmarking and determinants of mathematics achievement in two Indian states," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 395-411.
    15. Chudgar, Amita & Quin, Elizabeth, 2012. "Relationship between private schooling and achievement: Results from rural and urban India," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 376-390.
    16. Joseph G. Altonji & Todd E. Elder & Christopher R. Taber, 2005. "An Evaluation of Instrumental Variable Strategies for Estimating the Effects of Catholic Schooling," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(4), pages 791-821.
    17. Neal, Derek, 1997. "The Effects of Catholic Secondary Schooling on Educational Achievement," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages 98-123, January.
    18. Karthik Muralidharan & Venkatesh Sundararaman, 2015. "Editor's Choice The Aggregate Effect of School Choice: Evidence from a Two-Stage Experiment in India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(3), pages 1011-1066.
    19. Francis Vella, 1999. "Do Catholic Schools Make a Difference? Evidence from Australia," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(1), pages 208-224.
    20. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens, 2006. "Large Sample Properties of Matching Estimators for Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(1), pages 235-267, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Das, Sumit Kumar & Mishra, Udaya S. & Das, Milan & Das, Pritilata, 2022. "Perceptions of gender norms and sex-typed cognitive abilities among Indian adolescents – A study of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    2. M. Shahe Emran & Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Yajing Jiang & Yan Sun, 2023. "Occupational dualism and intergenerational educational mobility in the rural economy: evidence from China and India," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 21(3), pages 743-773, September.
    3. Ian K. McDonough & Punarjit Roychowdhury & Gaurav Dhamija, 2021. "Measuring the Dynamics of the Achievement Gap Between Public and Private School Students During Early Life in India," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 78-122, March.
    4. Goel, Deepti & Barooah, Bidisha, 2018. "Drivers of Student Performance: Evidence from Higher Secondary Public Schools in Delhi," GLO Discussion Paper Series 231, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    5. Karan Singhal & Upasak Das, 2019. "Revisiting the Role of Private Schooling on Children Learning Outcomes: Evidence from Rural India," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 20(2), pages 274-302, September.
    6. Bagde, Surendrakumar & Epple, Dennis & Taylor, Lowell, 2022. "The emergence of private high schools in India: The impact of public-private competition on public school students," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    7. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, 2020. "The Private Schooling Phenomenon in India: A Review," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(10), pages 1795-1817, October.
    8. Kumar, Deepak & Choudhury, Pradeep Kumar, 2021. "Do private schools really produce more learning than public schools in India? Accounting for student’s school absenteeism and the time spent on homework," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    9. Singh, Yashdeep & Suri, Pradeep Kumar, 2022. "An empirical analysis of mobile learning app usage experience," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    10. Abhishek Bhatnagar & Nomesh B. Bolia, 2023. "A sustainable decision‐making framework for school consolidation policy," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 1037-1063, June.
    11. Emran, M. Shahe & Ferreira, Francisco & Jiang, Yajing & Sun, Yan, 2019. "Intergenerational Educational Mobility in Rural Economy: Evidence from China and India," MPRA Paper 94121, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gihleb, Rania & Giuntella, Osea, 2017. "Nuns and the effects of catholic schools. Evidence from Vatican II," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 191-213.
    2. Wamalwa, Fredrick M. & Burns, Justine, 2018. "Private schools and student learning achievements in Kenya," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 114-124.
    3. Zimmermann, Laura, 2020. "Remember when it rained – Schooling responses to shocks in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    4. Hahn, Youjin & Wang, Liang Choon & Yang, Hee-Seung, 2018. "Does greater school autonomy make a difference? Evidence from a randomized natural experiment in South Korea," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 15-30.
    5. Krafft, Caroline & Elbadawy, Asmaa & Sieverding, Maia, 2019. "Constrained school choice in Egypt," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    6. Elder, Todd & Jepsen, Christopher, 2014. "Are Catholic primary schools more effective than public primary schools?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 28-38.
    7. Singh, Abhijeet, 2015. "Private school effects in urban and rural India: Panel estimates at primary and secondary school ages," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 16-32.
    8. Pauline Dixon, 2013. "International Aid and Private Schools for the Poor," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15122.
    9. Dahal,Mahesh & Nguyen,Quynh T., 2014. "Private non-state sector engagement in the provision of educational services at the primary and secondary levels in South Asia : an analytical review of its role in school enrollment and student achie," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6899, The World Bank.
    10. Green, Colin P. & Navarro-Paniagua, María & Ximénez-de-Embún, Domingo P. & Mancebón, María-Jesús, 2014. "School choice and student wellbeing," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 139-150.
    11. Kelly, Orla & Krishna, Aditi & Bhabha, Jacqueline, 2016. "Private schooling and gender justice: An empirical snapshot from Rajasthan, India's largest state," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 175-187.
    12. Cohen-Zada, Danny & Elder, Todd, 2009. "Historical religious concentrations and the effects of Catholic schooling," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 65-74, July.
    13. Santiago Acerenza & Otávio Bartalotti & Désiré Kédagni, 2023. "Testing identifying assumptions in bivariate probit models," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(3), pages 407-422, April.
    14. Kumar, Deepak & Choudhury, Pradeep Kumar, 2021. "Do private schools really produce more learning than public schools in India? Accounting for student’s school absenteeism and the time spent on homework," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    15. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, 2020. "The Private Schooling Phenomenon in India: A Review," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(10), pages 1795-1817, October.
    16. M. Niaz Asadullah, 2016. "The Effect Of Islamic Secondary School Attendance On Academic Achievement," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 61(04), pages 1-24, September.
    17. Cardak, Buly A. & Vecci, Joe, 2013. "Catholic school effectiveness in Australia: A reassessment using selection on observed and unobserved variables," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 34-45.
    18. Billger, Sherrilyn M., 2009. "On reconstructing school segregation: The efficacy and equity of single-sex schooling," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 393-402, June.
    19. Nghiem, Hong Son & Nguyen, Ha Trong & Khanam, Rasheda & Connelly, Luke B., 2015. "Does school type affect cognitive and non-cognitive development in children? Evidence from Australian primary schools," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 55-65.
    20. Lee Crawfurd, 2017. "School Management and Public–Private Partnerships in Uganda," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 26(5), pages 539-560.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:edecon:v:24:y:2016:i:5:p:465-480. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CEDE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.