School Inputs, Household Substitution, and Test Scores

Empirical studies of the relationship between school inputs and test scores typically do not account for the fact that households will respond to changes in school inputs. This paper presents a dynamic household optimization model relating test sco...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Das, Jishnu, Dercon, Stefan, Habyarimana, James, Krishnan, Pramila, Muralidharan, Karthik, Sundararaman, Venkatesh
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	2012
Subjects:	AID BASIC EDUCATION BLOCK GRANT BLOCK GRANTS CASH PAYMENTS CHILDREN WITH ACCESS CLASS SIZE CLASS-SIZE CLASSROOM CLASSROOM MATERIALS COMMUNITIES CORRUPTION CREDIT MARKETS DEGREES DEMAND FOR EDUCATION DISABILITY DISABILITY INSURANCE DISCRETIONARY FUNDING ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION ECONOMIES OF SCALE EDUCATED PARENTS EDUCATION DATA EDUCATION EXPENDITURES EDUCATION OUTCOMES EDUCATION POLICIES EDUCATION POLICY EDUCATION SECTOR EDUCATION SPENDING EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENTS EDUCATIONAL INPUTS EDUCATIONAL INVESTMENTS EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES EDUCATIONAL POLICY EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM ENDOWMENTS ENROLLMENT RATES EQUALITY EXPENDITURES FINANCES FINANCIAL MARKETS FINANCIAL SUPPORT FIRST GRADE FREE EDUCATION FUNDS FOR CAPITAL EXPENDITURE GENDER GOVERNMENT EDUCATION EXPENDITURE GOVERNMENT FUNDING GOVERNMENT-RUN SCHOOLS GRANT PROGRAMS GROSS ENROLLMENT HEAD TEACHER HOUSEHOLDS HUMAN CAPITAL HUMAN CAPITAL INVESTMENT HUMAN DEVELOPMENT HUMAN RESOURCES INCLUSION INCOME TAX INCOME TAX CREDIT INDEPENDENT LEARNING INTEREST RATE INTERNATIONAL BANK INTERVENTIONS INVESTMENT DECISIONS LABOR MARKET LEARNING LEARNING ACHIEVEMENT LEARNING ASSESSMENTS LEARNING MATERIALS LEARNING OUTCOMES LET LEVELS OF EDUCATION LITERACY LITERATURE MATH TEXTBOOKS MICROFINANCE NATIONAL ASSESSMENT NUMBER OF STUDENTS NUMBER OF TEACHERS NUTRITION NUTRITIONAL STATUS OPEN ACCESS PAPERS PARENT-TEACHER ASSOCIATION PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT PERFORMANCE INDICATORS PRIMARY EDUCATION PRIMARY ENROLLMENT PRIMARY SCHOOL PRIMARY SCHOOLS PRIVATE FUNDING PRIVATE SCHOOLS PROPERTY TAX PROVISION OF EDUCATION PUBLIC EDUCATION PUBLIC FINANCE PUBLIC SCHOOLS PUPIL-TEACHER RATIO RECEIPT RECEIPTS REGULAR TEACHERS REMOTE SCHOOLS RESOURCE CENTER RURAL SCHOOLS SAVINGS SCHOOL COMMITTEES SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION SCHOOL DISTRIBUTION SCHOOL EDUCATION SCHOOL ENROLLMENT SCHOOL EXPENDITURE SCHOOL FINANCES SCHOOL FUNDING SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE SCHOOL LEVEL SCHOOL MATERIALS SCHOOL PERFORMANCE SCHOOL SIZE SCHOOL STUDENTS SCHOOL SUPPLIES SCHOOL SURVEYS SCHOOL YEAR SCHOOLING SCHOOLS SHOW HOW SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS SOURCE OF FUNDS SOURCES OF FUNDS SPORTS STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT STUDENT BODY STUDENT LEARNING STUDENT PARTICIPATION TEACHER TEACHER PERFORMANCE TEACHER SALARIES TEACHERS TEACHING TEST SCORES TEXT BOOKS TEXTBOOK TEXTBOOKS TUITION TYPES OF EDUCATION UNEMPLOYMENT UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE URBAN AREAS URBAN SCHOOLS VILLAGE VILLAGE FUND VILLAGES WORKBOOKS WRITING MATERIALS
Online Access:	http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20110408112536 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3395

Description
Summary:	Empirical studies of the relationship between school inputs and test scores typically do not account for the fact that households will respond to changes in school inputs. This paper presents a dynamic household optimization model relating test scores to school and household inputs, and tests its predictions in two very different low-income country settings -- Zambia and India. The authors measure household spending changes and student test score gains in response to unanticipated as well as anticipated changes in school funding. Consistent with the optimization model, they find in both settings that households offset anticipated grants more than unanticipated grants. They also find that unanticipated school grants lead to significant improvements in student test scores but anticipated grants have no impact on test scores. The results suggest that naïve estimates of public education spending on learning outcomes that do not account for optimal household responses are likely to be considerably biased if used to estimate parameters of an education production function.

School Inputs, Household Substitution, and Test Scores

Similar Items