Working Paper: NBER ID: w18183
Authors: Evan Borkum; Fang He; Leigh L. Linden
Abstract: We conduct a randomized controlled trial of an Indian school library program. Overall, the program had no impact on students' scores on a language skills test administered after 16 months. The estimates are sufficiently precise to rule out effects larger than 0.053 and 0.037 standard deviations, based on the 95 and 90 percent confidence intervals. This finding is robust across individual competencies and subsets of the sample. The method of treatment, however, does seem to matter--physical libraries have no effect, while visiting librarians actually reduce test scores. We find no impact on test scores in other subjects or attendance rates.
Keywords: School Libraries; Language Skills; Randomized Controlled Trial; India
JEL Codes: I21; I28; O15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Akshara library program (Y60) | students' language skills (A29) |
| physical libraries (Y91) | students' language skills (A29) |
| visiting librarians (Y30) | students' language skills (A29) |
| Akshara library program (Y60) | significant improvements in language skills (I25) |
| physical libraries (Y91) | significant improvements in language skills (I25) |
| visiting librarians (Y30) | significant improvements in language skills (I25) |