Research - Education

Who Benefits from Private Schools? The Demand for Private Schools in Rural India.

Private schooling in rural India acts as an equalizer, offering significant academic gains for girls and disadvantaged children compared to boys and their advantaged peers, but access is hindered by liquidity constraints. 

Digital Divide or Digital Equalizer? Digital Technology and Educational Achievements in Rural India,  with Anisha Shukla.

Digital accessibility affects educational outcomes in rural India, finding that while it improves test scores of all children, disadvantaged groups benefit the most, though they have less access, potentially widening educational inequality. 

Household Resource Allocation Under Constraints: Evidence from India's Shadow Education Market.

Revision Requested 

This paper uncovers how Indian households under financial constraints exhibit a child quantity–quality tradeoff, investing more in private tutoring per child when they have fewer children, mirroring capacity allocation tradeoffs central to operations systems.  

Shadow Education, Intra-Household Financial Resource Allocation, and Educational Achievements, 2025, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 233, 106993.

Replication Files 

Girls and later-born children in India are disadvantaged in shadow education expenditures due to parental elder son preference, leading to notable gaps in cognitive test scores.   

Gray University Degrees: Experimental Evidence from India,  with Matthias Rieger, 2020, Education Finance and Policy, 15(2), 292-309.               

EFP Takeaways    Replication Files

Gray degrees in India increase job interview callbacks but are still viewed less favorably than authentic degrees, highlighting the complex dynamics of degree legitimacy in the hiring process.