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Essays in Development Economics /

Record Type:	Electronic resources : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	Essays in Development Economics // Monica Agarwal.
Author:	Agarwal, Monica,
Description:	1 electronic resource (202 pages)
Notes:	Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 86-02, Section: A.
Contained By:	Dissertations Abstracts International86-02A.
Subject:	South Asian studies. -
Online resource:	https://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=31486419
ISBN:	9798383582213

Essays in Development Economics /
Agarwal, Monica,

Essays in Development Economics /Monica Agarwal. - 1 electronic resource (202 pages)

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 86-02, Section: A.

In this dissertation, I contribute to the understanding of topics in the field of the economics of education and development economics in the context of India. The first two chapters focus on the economics of education and study India's affirmative action policy, the Right to Education Act, and throw light on its effectiveness on the lives of disadvantaged children. The third chapter focuses on development economics and studies how women's inheritance rights might improve their socioeconomic outcomes.In the first chapter, I study the causal impact of India's Right to Education Act (RTE) on educational outcomes of children. As one the largest affirmative action policies in the world, it targets millions of children of school entry age and mandates all private schools to provide free of cost schooling to low socioeconomic status children by reserving seats for them in entry level grades. I find that as a result of winning entry to any private school under this policy, children's educational outcomes improve and test scores increase by a significant margin. Furthermore, attending higher quality private schools improve test scores of beneficiaries even further, relative to lower quality private schools. My findings show that there is considerable heterogeneity within the private schooling sector and that a single estimate of the private school premium masks the underlying heterogeneity within the sector - an important contribution in the literature. This study is from the context of remote learning during the COVID-19 induced school closures, and provides evidence that private schools are effective not just during in-person settings but also in remote learning contexts - another important contribution, since most of our understanding about private school effectiveness is from in-person learning contexts.In the second chapter, I examine if a positive schooling shock for one child in the household leads to any spillover effects on the educational outcomes of their sibling in the context of RTE lotteries. My findings indicate that spillover effects exist and vary by the age of siblings. Younger siblings in households that win the grade 1 RTE lottery for the applicant child are less likely to be formally enrolled in school compared to their peers in losing households, but benefit from increased access to remote learning resources provided by the older applicant child's private school. Additionally, there are no significant differences in parental monetary and time investments between siblings in winning and losing households. This study shows that well-implemented affirmative action policies during economic hardships, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, can act as a safety net not only for the targeted individuals, but also benefit non-targeted individuals and can mitigate long-term educational inequalities.In the third chapter of my dissertation, I along with my coauthor study whether improving women's inheritance rights that increase their access to household property, affect their outcomes in their marital household. We estimate the causal impact of amendments to the Hindu Succession Act, which aimed to improve women's property inheritance rights in India, on the likelihood of the presence of a toilet in their marital households using a difference-in-differences framework, and allowing for dynamic and heterogeneous treatment effects. Our findings show that the policy had a positive impact on the presence of a toilet in treated women's marital households, with the effects being concentrated in the states that adopted the policy late. We attribute our results to the policy's role in increasing women's years of educational attainment and weakly increasing their intra-household bargaining power.In conclusion, this dissertation contributes to the understanding of key issues in the economics of education and development economics in the Indian context. Together, these studies provide valuable insights for policymakers aiming to design effective educational and social policies that promote equity and development.

English

ISBN: 9798383582213Subjects--Topical Terms:

3172880
South Asian studies.
Subjects--Index Terms:

Development economics

Essays in Development Economics /
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520 $a In this dissertation, I contribute to the understanding of topics in the field of the economics of education and development economics in the context of India. The first two chapters focus on the economics of education and study India's affirmative action policy, the Right to Education Act, and throw light on its effectiveness on the lives of disadvantaged children. The third chapter focuses on development economics and studies how women's inheritance rights might improve their socioeconomic outcomes.In the first chapter, I study the causal impact of India's Right to Education Act (RTE) on educational outcomes of children. As one the largest affirmative action policies in the world, it targets millions of children of school entry age and mandates all private schools to provide free of cost schooling to low socioeconomic status children by reserving seats for them in entry level grades. I find that as a result of winning entry to any private school under this policy, children's educational outcomes improve and test scores increase by a significant margin. Furthermore, attending higher quality private schools improve test scores of beneficiaries even further, relative to lower quality private schools. My findings show that there is considerable heterogeneity within the private schooling sector and that a single estimate of the private school premium masks the underlying heterogeneity within the sector - an important contribution in the literature. This study is from the context of remote learning during the COVID-19 induced school closures, and provides evidence that private schools are effective not just during in-person settings but also in remote learning contexts - another important contribution, since most of our understanding about private school effectiveness is from in-person learning contexts.In the second chapter, I examine if a positive schooling shock for one child in the household leads to any spillover effects on the educational outcomes of their sibling in the context of RTE lotteries. My findings indicate that spillover effects exist and vary by the age of siblings. Younger siblings in households that win the grade 1 RTE lottery for the applicant child are less likely to be formally enrolled in school compared to their peers in losing households, but benefit from increased access to remote learning resources provided by the older applicant child's private school. Additionally, there are no significant differences in parental monetary and time investments between siblings in winning and losing households. This study shows that well-implemented affirmative action policies during economic hardships, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, can act as a safety net not only for the targeted individuals, but also benefit non-targeted individuals and can mitigate long-term educational inequalities.In the third chapter of my dissertation, I along with my coauthor study whether improving women's inheritance rights that increase their access to household property, affect their outcomes in their marital household. We estimate the causal impact of amendments to the Hindu Succession Act, which aimed to improve women's property inheritance rights in India, on the likelihood of the presence of a toilet in their marital households using a difference-in-differences framework, and allowing for dynamic and heterogeneous treatment effects. Our findings show that the policy had a positive impact on the presence of a toilet in treated women's marital households, with the effects being concentrated in the states that adopted the policy late. We attribute our results to the policy's role in increasing women's years of educational attainment and weakly increasing their intra-household bargaining power.In conclusion, this dissertation contributes to the understanding of key issues in the economics of education and development economics in the Indian context. Together, these studies provide valuable insights for policymakers aiming to design effective educational and social policies that promote equity and development.
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653 $a Educational attainment
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710 2 $a The University of Wisconsin - Madison. $b Agricultural and Applied Econ. $e degree granting institution. $3 3818320
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773 0 $t Dissertations Abstracts International $g 86-02A.
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