American Economic Review Vol. 115 No. 1 2025

Heterogeneity in School Value Added and the Private Premium

Tahir Andrabi¹; Natalie Bau²; Jishnu Das³; Asim I. Khwaja⁴

¹ Pomona College (email: ) · ² University of California, Los Angeles, NBER, CEPR, BREAD (email: ) · ³ Georgetown University, NBER, BREAD (email: ) · ⁴ Harvard Kennedy School, BREAD, CEPR, NBER (email: )

Abstract

We estimate and validate test score–based measures of school quality (school value added, or SVA) in Pakistan. We document substantial variation in SVA within villages and within the public and private sectors, leading to a wide range of possible estimates of the private premium. We also show that parents value SVA. Heterogeneity in parental demand for quality helps explain both the evolution of the market over time and cross-market variation in school quality. The supply side responds to parental demand for quality in the private sector, but there is no evidence it does so in the public sector.

DOI

10.1257/aer.20221422

Volume

115

Issue

1

Pages

147-182

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite

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