Does Access to Secondary Education Affect Primary Schooling? Evidence from India

33 Pages Posted: 5 May 2012

See all articles by Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay

Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay

Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi - Delhi Centre

Soham Sahoo

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

Abstract

This paper investigates if better access to secondary education increases enrolment in primary schools among children in the 6-10 age group. Using a household-level longitudinal survey covering 43 villages in a poor state in India, we find support for the hypothesis that better access to secondary education increases enrolment and attendance among children in the primary school-going age group. A 1 km decrease in the distance to the nearest secondary school increases the proportion of children in a household who are enroled in primary school by 6.5 percentage points. These results do not change significantly even after we account for endogenous placement of secondary schools and measurement error issues. Moreover, we find that the effect is consistent with what theory predicts: the marginal effect is larger for poorer households and boys (who are more likely to enter the labour force). Further, using a nationally representative survey for India (National Sample Survey 2007-08), we also provide some suggestive evidence that this effect may be quite widespread. This result gives support to the assertion that if the costs of post primary schooling are too high, as they would be if secondary schools are far away, parents have lesser interest in their children's education even at the primary stage.

Keywords: primary schooling, returns to schooling, post primary schooling

JEL Classification: I2, I20, I21

Suggested Citation

Mukhopadhyay, Abhiroop and Sahoo, Soham, Does Access to Secondary Education Affect Primary Schooling? Evidence from India. IZA Discussion Paper No. 6507, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2051310 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2051310

Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay (Contact Author)

Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi - Delhi Centre ( email )

7 S .J. S.
Sansanwal Marg
New Delhi, 110016
India

Soham Sahoo

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore ( email )

Bannerghatta Main Road, Bilekahalli
Bengaluru, Karnatak 560076
India

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