The demand for primary schooling in Madagascar: Price, quality, and the choice between public and private providers

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Glick, P; Sahn, DE
• 署名单位: Cornell University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2005.01.001
• 发表日期: 2006
• 页码: 118-145
• 关键词: education; School quality; human capital; school choice; Madagascar

摘要

We estimate a discrete choice model of primary schooling and simulate policy alternatives for rural Madagascar. Among school quality factors, the results highlight the negative impacts on schooling demand of poor facility quality and the use of multigrade teaching (several grades being taught simultaneously by one teacher) in public schools. Simulations indicate the feasibility of reducing multigrade in public schools by adding teachers and classrooms, a policy that would lead to modest improvements in overall enrollments and would disproportionately benefit poor children. Given much higher price elasticities for poorer households, raising school fees to cover some of the additional costs would strongly counteract these favorable distributional outcomes. An alternative policy of consolidation of primary schools combined with multigrade reduction or other quality improvements is likely to be ineffective because of the strongly negative impact of distance to school. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.