Evaluating Public Per-Student Subsidies to Low-Cost Private Schools : Regression-Discontinuity Evidence from Pakistan
This study estimates the causal effects of a public per-student subsidy program targeted at low-cost private schools in Pakistan on student enrollment and schooling inputs. Program entry is ultimately conditional on achieving a minimum stipulated s...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20110425102033 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3402 |
| Summary: | This study estimates the causal effects
of a public per-student subsidy program targeted at low-cost
private schools in Pakistan on student enrollment and
schooling inputs. Program entry is ultimately conditional on
achieving a minimum stipulated student pass rate (cutoff) in
a standardized academic test. This mechanism for treatment
assignment allows the application of
regression-discontinuity (RD) methods to estimate program
impacts at the cutoff. Data on two rounds of entry test
takers (phase 3 and phase 4) are used. Modeling the entry
process of phase-4 test takers as a sharp RD design, the
authors find evidence of large positive impacts on the
number of students, teachers, classrooms, and blackboards.
Modeling the entry process of phase-3 test takers as a
partially-fuzzy RD design given treatment crossovers, they
do not find evidence of significant program impacts on
outcomes of interest. The latter finding is likely due to
weak identification arising from a small jump in the
probability of treatment at the cutoff. |
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