Working Paper: NBER ID: w15922
Authors: Emily Oster; M Bryce Millett
Abstract: Over the last two decades in India there have been large increases in outsourced jobs and large increases in schooling rates, particularly in English. Existing evidence suggests the trends are broadly related. In this paper we explore how localized these impacts are; this has implications for understanding how quickly information about these jobs diffuses. We use panel data on school enrollment from a comprehensive school-level administrative dataset. This is merged with detailed data on Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) center location and founding dates. Using school fixed effects, we estimate the impact of introducing a new ITES center in the vicinity of the school on enrollment. We find that introducing a new ITES center results in a 5.7% increase in number of children enrolled; these effects are extremely localized. We argue this result is not driven by pre-trends in enrollment or endogenous center placement, and is not a result of ITES-center induced changes in population or increases in income. The effect is driven entirely by English-language schools, consistent with the claim that the impacts are driven by changes in returns to schooling.
Keywords: school enrollment; ITES centers; India; education policy
JEL Codes: I21; I24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Changes in population or income (J11) | No impact on school enrollment (I21) |
| Future ITES centers (L86) | No prediction of current enrollment rates (I21) |
| Introduction of ITES center (L86) | Increase in school enrollment (I21) |
| Introduction of ITES center (L86) | Increase in English-language school enrollment (I21) |
| Introduction of voice ITES center (L86) | Increase in English-language school enrollment (I21) |
| Introduction of ITES center (L86) | No significant change in local-language school enrollment (I21) |