American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2011
This paper illustrates the central role of persistence in estimating and interpreting value-added... more This paper illustrates the central role of persistence in estimating and interpreting value-added models of learning. Using data from Pakistani public and private schools, we apply dynamic panel methods that address three key empirical challenges: imperfect persistence, unobserved heterogeneity, and measurement error. Our estimates suggest that only one-fifth to one-half of learning persists between grades and that private schools increase average achievement by 0.25 standard deviations each year. In contrast, value-added models that assume perfect persistence yield severely downward estimates of the private school effect. Models that ignore unobserved heterogeneity or measurement error produce biased estimates of persistence. (JEL I21, J13, O15)
We study the effects of a policy that distributed large cash grants through school councils to pu... more We study the effects of a policy that distributed large cash grants through school councils to public schools in rural Pakistan. Using a village-level randomized control trial, we identify the medium-term equilibrium effects of this policy in a marketplace where the private sector is large and there is substantial school choice. Learning increases in both the public and private sectors. Private school improvements appear to be driven by competitive pressures. Private schools located closer to public schools and in villages with higher quality public schools experience larger improvements. Failing to measure learning improvements in the private sector greatly reduces cost-effectiveness. Our findings suggest that, through public sector investment, the government can leverage choice and market structure to improve students’ outcomes across sectors. ∗We thank seminar participants at Columbia, Yale, Berkeley, Trinity College Dublin, Michigan, and PSU for valuable comments. Catherine Mich...
There is a large literature on the impact of railways on price convergence. Ignored, however, is ... more There is a large literature on the impact of railways on price convergence. Ignored, however, is the role of another potentially important network: post offices. By providing timely information on arbitrage and trade opportunities, post offices could also contribute to market integration. This paper tests that proposition in the context of British Indian grain markets. Rice and wheat markets in colonial India saw a broad convergence in prices during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Research suggests that railways mattered, but are capable of explaining only some of that convergence. This paper tests whether the spread of post offices also contributed to that price convergence. We find that it did, though the effects shrink in the presence of railways. Estimates suggest that between 1881 and 1911, post office growth reduced price dispersion by 20–24% of the total decline in Indian grain price dispersion. The precise mechanism through which these effects operate, however, is less clear.
Bold assertions have been made in policy reports and popular articles on the high and increasing ... more Bold assertions have been made in policy reports and popular articles on the high and increasing enrollment in Pakistani religious schools, commonly known as madrassas. Given the importance placed on the subject by policymakers in Pakistan and those internationally, it is troubling that none of the reports and articles reviewed based their analysis on publicly available data or established statistical methodologies. The authors of this paper use published data sources and a census of schooling choice to show that existing estimates are inflated by an order of magnitude. Madrassas account for less than 1 percent of all enrollment in the country and there is no evidence of a dramatic increase in recent years. The educational landscape in Pakistan has changed substantially in the past decade, but this is due to an explosion of private schools, an important fact that has been left out of the debate on Pakistani education. Moreover, when the authors look at school choice, they find that ...
Even as primary-school enrollments have increased in most low-income countries, levels of learnin... more Even as primary-school enrollments have increased in most low-income countries, levels of learning remain low and highly unequal. Responding to greater parental demand for quality, low-cost private schools have emerged as one of the fastest growing schooling options, challenging the monopoly of state-provided education and broadening the set of educational providers. Historically, the rise of private schooling is always deeply intertwined with debates around who chooses what schooling is about and who represents the interests of children. This time is no different. But rather than first resolve the question of how child welfare is to be adjudicated, this paper argues instead for a `pragmatic framework’. In this pragmatic framework, policy takes into account the full schooling environment—which includes public, private and other types of providers—and is actively concerned with first alleviating constraints that prohibit parents and schools from fulfilling their own stated objectives...
We are writing this because we believe the issues we raise here require urgent action, but we do ... more We are writing this because we believe the issues we raise here require urgent action, but we do caution that the piece has not yet been peer reviewed.
ABSTRACT There is a large literature on the impact of railways on price convergence. Ignored, how... more ABSTRACT There is a large literature on the impact of railways on price convergence. Ignored, however, is the role of another potentially important network: post offices. By providing timely information on arbitrage and trade opportunities, post offices could also contribute to market integration. This paper tests that proposition in the context of British Indian grain markets. Rice and wheat markets in colonial India saw a broad convergence in prices during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Research suggests that railways mattered, but are capable of explaining only some of that convergence. This paper tests whether the spread of post offices also contributed to that price convergence. We find that it did, though the effects shrink in the presence of railways. Estimates suggest that between 1881 and 1911, post office growth reduced price dispersion by 20–24% of the total decline in Indian grain price dispersion. The precise mechanism through which these effects operate, however, is less clear.
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
We examine a primary dataset on contracts between a large tractor assembler and its subcontractor... more We examine a primary dataset on contracts between a large tractor assembler and its subcontractors. We find evidence for both price and quantity discrimination across vendors supplying the same part in the same year. Vendors differ, among other things, in terms of how specific their assets are to the assembler. We find that vendors with greater asset specificity have lower
Page 1. Report Cards: The Impact of Providing Test-score information on Educational Markets Tahir... more Page 1. Report Cards: The Impact of Providing Test-score information on Educational Markets Tahir Andrabi (Pomona College) Jishnu Das (World Bank) Asim Ijaz Khwaja (Harvard University)* October 2008 Abstract Recent ...
Using a new census of private educational institutions in Pakistan together with the population c... more Using a new census of private educational institutions in Pakistan together with the population census, we present evidence that private schooling, particularly at the primary level is indeed a large and increasingly important factor in education in Pakistan both in absolute terms and relative to public schooling. While the rural-urban gap still remains, the growth trends showed a marked improvement in rural areas. Contrary to expectations, private schools are not an urban elite phenomenon. Not only are they prevalent in rural areas but also are affordable to middle and even low income groups. Private schools have lower student-teacher ratios than public schools and while teachers were largely untrained and less experienced, their education level matched those in public schools. Fees respond in predictable ways to measured school inputs, suggesting that parents can infer quality variation between schools. Private schools are mainly coeducational, have a high percentage of girls' enrollment and a majority of the teachers are females. Looking at just the rural areas at the patwar circle level, we find that those areas that have a greater supply of educated women are able to respond very effectively to the growing demand for education by formation of schools and by increased enrollment.
... Mothers and Child Educational Outcomes January 2009 Preliminary: Please do not cite Tahir And... more ... Mothers and Child Educational Outcomes January 2009 Preliminary: Please do not cite Tahir Andrabi Jishnu Das Asim Ijaz Khwaja Pomona College The World Bank Harvard University [email protected][email protected][email protected] ...
Research has suggested that the extensive railway system built in India after 1853 created a unif... more Research has suggested that the extensive railway system built in India after 1853 created a unified goods market there. Using panel data on district wheat prices from 1860-1920, we test whether wheat markets were integrated then. Employing panel unit root tests, we find strong evidence for market integration. We then attempt to measure the contribution of railroads to that integration by regressing annual absolute price differences for district pairs on the presence of railways. We find that after controlling for time trends and district pair fixed effects, the contribution from railways is significant but small. Of the 35 percentage point drop in average absolute price differences over our sample period, railways can only explain 3-8 percentage points or approximately 10-20%. This is robust across different samples and specifications. This suggests that other factors were primarily responsible for the dramatic price convergence during these years. We examine the effects on price d...
The period 1861 to 1920 witnessed sharp price convergence in British Indian grain markets. Previo... more The period 1861 to 1920 witnessed sharp price convergence in British Indian grain markets. Previous research attributed this to the construction of railways. But tests examining price differences between districts provide surprisingly weak support for that hypothesis. Railways mattered, but seem capable of explaining only about 20 percent of the decline in price dispersion. One explanation may be that India was a partially integrated economy at the time of railroad expansion. Lines connecting districts on preexisting trade routes had very small price effects. There is also some evidence of a “border effect” on lines between British India and princely states.
We examined a setting where decision making about financing a given amount of government spending... more We examined a setting where decision making about financing a given amount of government spending is decentralized. Seigniorage is the residual tax that passively adjusts to meet the budget constraint. We place this budget making process in a repeated game setting and characterize the cooperative tax-seigniorage function. Three main results are (1) Seignioiage and transitory changes in output are positively
The paper explains why banking regulations are crucial to the unfolding of the current internatio... more The paper explains why banking regulations are crucial to the unfolding of the current international debt crisis. The interplay of deposit insurance and capital adequacy requirements may create strong disincentives against offering relief to debtor countries with solvency problems, in spite of the fact that granting relief would improve the worth of the claims held by creditor banks. Furthermore, it
... Tahir Andrabi Jishnu Das Asim Ijaz Khwaja The World Bank ... Maternal Education and Child Out... more ... Tahir Andrabi Jishnu Das Asim Ijaz Khwaja The World Bank ... Maternal Education and Child Outcomes * Tahir Andrabi (Pomona College) Jishnu Das (World Bank, Washington DC and Center for Policy Research, New Delhi) Asim Ijaz Khwaja (Harvard University and NBER) ...
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2011
This paper illustrates the central role of persistence in estimating and interpreting value-added... more This paper illustrates the central role of persistence in estimating and interpreting value-added models of learning. Using data from Pakistani public and private schools, we apply dynamic panel methods that address three key empirical challenges: imperfect persistence, unobserved heterogeneity, and measurement error. Our estimates suggest that only one-fifth to one-half of learning persists between grades and that private schools increase average achievement by 0.25 standard deviations each year. In contrast, value-added models that assume perfect persistence yield severely downward estimates of the private school effect. Models that ignore unobserved heterogeneity or measurement error produce biased estimates of persistence. (JEL I21, J13, O15)
We study the effects of a policy that distributed large cash grants through school councils to pu... more We study the effects of a policy that distributed large cash grants through school councils to public schools in rural Pakistan. Using a village-level randomized control trial, we identify the medium-term equilibrium effects of this policy in a marketplace where the private sector is large and there is substantial school choice. Learning increases in both the public and private sectors. Private school improvements appear to be driven by competitive pressures. Private schools located closer to public schools and in villages with higher quality public schools experience larger improvements. Failing to measure learning improvements in the private sector greatly reduces cost-effectiveness. Our findings suggest that, through public sector investment, the government can leverage choice and market structure to improve students’ outcomes across sectors. ∗We thank seminar participants at Columbia, Yale, Berkeley, Trinity College Dublin, Michigan, and PSU for valuable comments. Catherine Mich...
There is a large literature on the impact of railways on price convergence. Ignored, however, is ... more There is a large literature on the impact of railways on price convergence. Ignored, however, is the role of another potentially important network: post offices. By providing timely information on arbitrage and trade opportunities, post offices could also contribute to market integration. This paper tests that proposition in the context of British Indian grain markets. Rice and wheat markets in colonial India saw a broad convergence in prices during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Research suggests that railways mattered, but are capable of explaining only some of that convergence. This paper tests whether the spread of post offices also contributed to that price convergence. We find that it did, though the effects shrink in the presence of railways. Estimates suggest that between 1881 and 1911, post office growth reduced price dispersion by 20–24% of the total decline in Indian grain price dispersion. The precise mechanism through which these effects operate, however, is less clear.
Bold assertions have been made in policy reports and popular articles on the high and increasing ... more Bold assertions have been made in policy reports and popular articles on the high and increasing enrollment in Pakistani religious schools, commonly known as madrassas. Given the importance placed on the subject by policymakers in Pakistan and those internationally, it is troubling that none of the reports and articles reviewed based their analysis on publicly available data or established statistical methodologies. The authors of this paper use published data sources and a census of schooling choice to show that existing estimates are inflated by an order of magnitude. Madrassas account for less than 1 percent of all enrollment in the country and there is no evidence of a dramatic increase in recent years. The educational landscape in Pakistan has changed substantially in the past decade, but this is due to an explosion of private schools, an important fact that has been left out of the debate on Pakistani education. Moreover, when the authors look at school choice, they find that ...
Even as primary-school enrollments have increased in most low-income countries, levels of learnin... more Even as primary-school enrollments have increased in most low-income countries, levels of learning remain low and highly unequal. Responding to greater parental demand for quality, low-cost private schools have emerged as one of the fastest growing schooling options, challenging the monopoly of state-provided education and broadening the set of educational providers. Historically, the rise of private schooling is always deeply intertwined with debates around who chooses what schooling is about and who represents the interests of children. This time is no different. But rather than first resolve the question of how child welfare is to be adjudicated, this paper argues instead for a `pragmatic framework’. In this pragmatic framework, policy takes into account the full schooling environment—which includes public, private and other types of providers—and is actively concerned with first alleviating constraints that prohibit parents and schools from fulfilling their own stated objectives...
We are writing this because we believe the issues we raise here require urgent action, but we do ... more We are writing this because we believe the issues we raise here require urgent action, but we do caution that the piece has not yet been peer reviewed.
ABSTRACT There is a large literature on the impact of railways on price convergence. Ignored, how... more ABSTRACT There is a large literature on the impact of railways on price convergence. Ignored, however, is the role of another potentially important network: post offices. By providing timely information on arbitrage and trade opportunities, post offices could also contribute to market integration. This paper tests that proposition in the context of British Indian grain markets. Rice and wheat markets in colonial India saw a broad convergence in prices during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Research suggests that railways mattered, but are capable of explaining only some of that convergence. This paper tests whether the spread of post offices also contributed to that price convergence. We find that it did, though the effects shrink in the presence of railways. Estimates suggest that between 1881 and 1911, post office growth reduced price dispersion by 20–24% of the total decline in Indian grain price dispersion. The precise mechanism through which these effects operate, however, is less clear.
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
We examine a primary dataset on contracts between a large tractor assembler and its subcontractor... more We examine a primary dataset on contracts between a large tractor assembler and its subcontractors. We find evidence for both price and quantity discrimination across vendors supplying the same part in the same year. Vendors differ, among other things, in terms of how specific their assets are to the assembler. We find that vendors with greater asset specificity have lower
Page 1. Report Cards: The Impact of Providing Test-score information on Educational Markets Tahir... more Page 1. Report Cards: The Impact of Providing Test-score information on Educational Markets Tahir Andrabi (Pomona College) Jishnu Das (World Bank) Asim Ijaz Khwaja (Harvard University)* October 2008 Abstract Recent ...
Using a new census of private educational institutions in Pakistan together with the population c... more Using a new census of private educational institutions in Pakistan together with the population census, we present evidence that private schooling, particularly at the primary level is indeed a large and increasingly important factor in education in Pakistan both in absolute terms and relative to public schooling. While the rural-urban gap still remains, the growth trends showed a marked improvement in rural areas. Contrary to expectations, private schools are not an urban elite phenomenon. Not only are they prevalent in rural areas but also are affordable to middle and even low income groups. Private schools have lower student-teacher ratios than public schools and while teachers were largely untrained and less experienced, their education level matched those in public schools. Fees respond in predictable ways to measured school inputs, suggesting that parents can infer quality variation between schools. Private schools are mainly coeducational, have a high percentage of girls' enrollment and a majority of the teachers are females. Looking at just the rural areas at the patwar circle level, we find that those areas that have a greater supply of educated women are able to respond very effectively to the growing demand for education by formation of schools and by increased enrollment.
... Mothers and Child Educational Outcomes January 2009 Preliminary: Please do not cite Tahir And... more ... Mothers and Child Educational Outcomes January 2009 Preliminary: Please do not cite Tahir Andrabi Jishnu Das Asim Ijaz Khwaja Pomona College The World Bank Harvard University [email protected][email protected][email protected] ...
Research has suggested that the extensive railway system built in India after 1853 created a unif... more Research has suggested that the extensive railway system built in India after 1853 created a unified goods market there. Using panel data on district wheat prices from 1860-1920, we test whether wheat markets were integrated then. Employing panel unit root tests, we find strong evidence for market integration. We then attempt to measure the contribution of railroads to that integration by regressing annual absolute price differences for district pairs on the presence of railways. We find that after controlling for time trends and district pair fixed effects, the contribution from railways is significant but small. Of the 35 percentage point drop in average absolute price differences over our sample period, railways can only explain 3-8 percentage points or approximately 10-20%. This is robust across different samples and specifications. This suggests that other factors were primarily responsible for the dramatic price convergence during these years. We examine the effects on price d...
The period 1861 to 1920 witnessed sharp price convergence in British Indian grain markets. Previo... more The period 1861 to 1920 witnessed sharp price convergence in British Indian grain markets. Previous research attributed this to the construction of railways. But tests examining price differences between districts provide surprisingly weak support for that hypothesis. Railways mattered, but seem capable of explaining only about 20 percent of the decline in price dispersion. One explanation may be that India was a partially integrated economy at the time of railroad expansion. Lines connecting districts on preexisting trade routes had very small price effects. There is also some evidence of a “border effect” on lines between British India and princely states.
We examined a setting where decision making about financing a given amount of government spending... more We examined a setting where decision making about financing a given amount of government spending is decentralized. Seigniorage is the residual tax that passively adjusts to meet the budget constraint. We place this budget making process in a repeated game setting and characterize the cooperative tax-seigniorage function. Three main results are (1) Seignioiage and transitory changes in output are positively
The paper explains why banking regulations are crucial to the unfolding of the current internatio... more The paper explains why banking regulations are crucial to the unfolding of the current international debt crisis. The interplay of deposit insurance and capital adequacy requirements may create strong disincentives against offering relief to debtor countries with solvency problems, in spite of the fact that granting relief would improve the worth of the claims held by creditor banks. Furthermore, it
... Tahir Andrabi Jishnu Das Asim Ijaz Khwaja The World Bank ... Maternal Education and Child Out... more ... Tahir Andrabi Jishnu Das Asim Ijaz Khwaja The World Bank ... Maternal Education and Child Outcomes * Tahir Andrabi (Pomona College) Jishnu Das (World Bank, Washington DC and Center for Policy Research, New Delhi) Asim Ijaz Khwaja (Harvard University and NBER) ...
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Papers by Tahir Andrabi
on arbitrage and trade opportunities, post offices could also
contribute to market integration. This paper tests that proposition
in the context of British Indian grain markets. Rice and wheat
markets in colonial India saw a broad convergence in prices
during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Research
suggests that railways mattered, but are capable of explaining
only some of that convergence. This paper tests whether the
spread of post offices also contributed to that price convergence.
We find that it did, though the effects shrink in the presence of
railways. Estimates suggest that between 1881 and 1911, post
office growth reduced price dispersion by 20–24% of the total
decline in Indian grain price dispersion. The precise mechanism
through which these effects operate, however, is less clear.
on arbitrage and trade opportunities, post offices could also
contribute to market integration. This paper tests that proposition
in the context of British Indian grain markets. Rice and wheat
markets in colonial India saw a broad convergence in prices
during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Research
suggests that railways mattered, but are capable of explaining
only some of that convergence. This paper tests whether the
spread of post offices also contributed to that price convergence.
We find that it did, though the effects shrink in the presence of
railways. Estimates suggest that between 1881 and 1911, post
office growth reduced price dispersion by 20–24% of the total
decline in Indian grain price dispersion. The precise mechanism
through which these effects operate, however, is less clear.