Knowledge is Power: School Construction & Intergenerational Human Capital

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of a large scale school construction program in India, the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP), on educational outcomes of direct beneficiaries and their children. Between the years 1993-2004, DPEP served over 50 million children and prioritized districts with below-average female literacy rates. This structure facilitates a fuzzy regression discontinuity design that compares outcomes of school-age children in districts near the average female literacy cutoff. In the analysis I combine data from multiple nationally representative household surveys with unique archival information. The results show that DPEP increased school access, enrollment, literacy and completed education for both male and female students. I then provide the first evidence of intergenerational effects of a school construction policy. Children whose mothers were DPEP beneficiaries had higher scores on standardized math (0.18 S.D.), vernacular (0.19 S.D.) and English (0.09 S.D.) tests. Daughters’ test scores went up by more than 17 to 22 percentage points higher than that of sons. Father’s DPEP exposure had no effect on children’s learning. The intergenerational impacts may be mediated through mother’s increased bargaining power, higher investments in children’s education and better health/health related behaviors.