Description:
With an estimated 115 million children
not attending primary school in the developing world,
increasing access to education is critical. Resource
constraints limit the effectiveness of demand-based
subsidies. This paper focuses on the importance of a
supply-side factor -- the availability of low-cost teachers
-- and the resulting ability of the market to offer
affordable education. The authors first show that private
schools are three times more likely to emerge in villages
with government girls' secondary schools (GSS).
Identification is obtained by using official school
construction guidelines as an instrument for the presence of
GSS. In contrast, there is little or no relationship between
the presence of a private school and girls' primary or
boys' primary and secondary government schools. In
support of a supply-channel, the authors then show that, for
villages that received a GSS, there are over twice as many
educated women and that private school teachers' wages
are 27 percent lower in these villages. In an environment
with poor female education and low mobility, GSS
substantially increase the local supply of skilled women
lowering wages locally and allowing the market to offer
affordable education. These findings highlight the prominent
role of women as teachers in facilitating educational access
and resonate with similar historical evidence from developed
economies. The students of today are the teachers of tomorrow.