Upping the Ante : The Equilibrium Effects of Unconditional Grants to Private Schools / Andrabi, Tahir.

Format:

Book

Government document

Author/Creator:

Andrabi, Tahir.

Contributor:

Andrabi, Tahir.

Das, Jishnu.

Khwaja, Asim I.

Ozyurt, Selcuk.

Singh, Niharika.

Series:

Policy research working papers.

World Bank e-Library.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Education.

Education Finance.

Education Markets.

Educational Achievement.

Financial Innovation.

Private Schools.

Return to Capital.

Small and Medium Enterprises.

SMEs.

Local Subjects:

Education.

Education Finance.

Education Markets.

Educational Achievement.

Financial Innovation.

Private Schools.

Return to Capital.

Small and Medium Enterprises.

SMEs.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (96 pages)

Other Title:

Upping the Ante

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : The World Bank, 2018.

System Details:

data file

Summary:

This paper tests for financial constraints as a market failure in education in a low-income country. In an experimental setup, unconditional cash grants are allocated to one private school or all private schools in a village. Enrollment increases in both treatments, accompanied by infrastructure investments. However, test scores and fees only increase in the setting of all private schools along with higher teacher wages. This differential impact follows from a canonical oligopoly model with capacity constraints and endogenous quality: greater financial saturation crowds-in quality investments. The findings of higher social surplus in the setting of all private schools, but greater private returns in the setting of one private school underscore the importance of leveraging market structure in designing educational subsidies.