Experiencing and Responding to Private Competition: The Importance of Subjectivity and Intermediate Outcomes

Abstract

Despite substantial growth in private schooling in developing countries, there has been little attention paid to the question of how public schools are experiencing and responding to competition in these contexts. To address this research gap, I collected primary survey data from two districts in Nepal and used descriptive and logistic regression methods to analyze the following questions: How do public schools experience private competition, and how do they respond to it? There are two central findings: (i) measuring competition subjectively may better capture public schools’ proclivity to respond to private competition with policy changes than using measures that capture private sector growth alone; and (ii) public schools are adopting a variety of strategies, especially transitioning from Nepali to English medium of instruction, which may be attributable to private competition and government facilitation. The article’s analytical strategy may provide a feasible road map for related analysis in other developing countries.