Poster #115 - To Not Move Forward is to Fall Behind: Evidence of policy failure in India

• In Event: Friday Poster Reception

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of education reforms on enrollment levels at the elementary school level in India. The paper exploits a unique natural experiment in which the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act of 2009 was implemented in India, except for the state (now Union Territory(UT)) of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). Using a quasi-experimental synthetic control approach, I estimate the causal impact of the non-implementation of the RTE act on enrollment levels in elementary schools in J&K to show what other Indian states averted through RTE implementation, effectively quantifying the human cost of policy failure and missed opportunities for development. This study thus serves as both a cautionary tale and a powerful validation of education policy's fundamental role in human capital preservation. Using household surveys and administrative data from the Ministry of Education, I find that on average nearly 300,000 (16.8% more than pre-RTE enrollments) additional elementary-aged children could have enrolled annually post the passage of RTE act if the act had been rolled out in J&K. I demonstrate differential impacts of non-implementation of RTE across primary and upper primary levels of schooling, and find that the negative effects are more pronounced at the upper primary level. I establish the economic significance of the forgone human capital through Mincer wage equations showing substantial lifetime earnings losses. I find that children in J&K who complete elementary education earn 46% more than children who do not.

Author

• Sayak Khatua, Oregon State University
  Presenting Author