Estimating the impact of school feeding programs: Evidence from mid day meal scheme of India

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of the world's largest free school lunch program (Mid Day Meal Scheme) on school enrollment in India. While the program was launched nationally, its implementation has been scattered within and across states. Using an instrumental variable approach, this paper estimates local average treatment effect of receiving free meals in school on children's enrollment in primary school. The findings of this paper suggest that the mid-day meal scheme increased the probability of enrollment in primary school and on-time enrollment in first grade. An analysis of heterogeneity in results shows that the program had larger effect on socially disadvantaged groups and on girls. Specifically, the analysis found the effect of the mid-day meal program on girls to be almost twice its effect on boys for primary school enrollment, suggesting that the program had a positive impact on reducing the gender gap in school participation.