Infrastructure and girls' education: Bicycles, roads, and the gender education gap in India

Arbeitspapier

How can infrastructure help to reduce the gender education gap in developing countries? In this paper, I analyze the complementarity of all-weather roads and a bicycle program in Bihar, India, which aimed to increase girls' secondary school enrollment rate. Using Indian household survey data combined with a quadrupledifference estimation strategy, I find that the program's main beneficiaries are girls living at least 3km away from secondary schools whose villages are connected with all-weather roads. Their net secondary school enrollment rate increased by over 87 percent, reducing the respective gender education gap by around 45 percent. I find no effect for girls living in villages without an all-weather road, suggesting that allweather roads are not just complementary to the bicycle program but a precondition for its success. The findings highlight the importance of well-functioning infrastructure for the accessibility of secondary schools and the empowering of girls in India.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: ifo Working Paper ; No. 382

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Economic Development: Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure ; Analysis of Education ; Education: Government Policy ; Publicly Provided Private Goods ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
• Thema: Roads ; bicycles ; infrastructure ; girls' education ; gender education gap ; India

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Seebacher, Moritz
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich
• (wo): Munich
• (wann): 2022

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/266259
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:45 MEZ