Does “Vale Bicicleta” have an impact on enrollment?

Responsible researcher: Adriano Valladão Pires Ribeiro

Article title: CYCLING TO SCHOOL: INCREASING SECONDARY SCHOOL ENROLLMENT FOR GIRLS IN INDIA

Article authors: Karthik Muralidharan and Nishith Prakash

Location of intervention: India

Sample size: 30,112 observations

Big theme: Education

Type of Intervention: Conditional kind transfers

Variable of main interest: Enrollment of young females in secondary education

Assessment method: Triple and quadruple difference

Policy Problem

Reducing the gender gap in education among young people is an important issue to be overcome. This problem, in many countries, means encouraging young females to enroll and continue studying, especially in adolescence. The state of Bihar, in India, launched a public policy in 2006 that gave young girls entering secondary education a bicycle. This initiative reduces young people's costs of attending school and thus helps to overcome this difference.

Assessment Context

Bihar is the third most populous state in India with around 100 million inhabitants and, at the beginning of the 2000s, it was both among the most economically backward states and among the lowest average levels of education. The government elected in late 2005 prioritized advances in law and order to mitigate corruption and the delivery of public services, in particular a rapid increase in spending on education.

Generally speaking, in Bihar, school enrollment is decreasing by age for both sexes, that is, the older the age, the lower the chance of a young person being in school. The problem is aggravated for young females, the chance of being enrolled is even lower, with a notable difference between 14 and 15 years old, the age at which they enter secondary education. Among the causes of this situation, distance is identified as a relevant barrier, since less than 12% of villages in the state had a secondary school and, the greater the distance from the nearest school, the lower the probability of a young person being enrolled or having completed the first year of secondary education.

Intervention Details

The government of Bihar launched the Bicycle Program in 2006, which provided a bicycle to female students enrolled in the first year of secondary education so they could go to school more easily. The purchase of bicycles would be made directly by young women eligible for the program after receiving a sum of money (approximately 100 reais per student, converted at the 2006 exchange rate). The money was distributed by schools in public ceremonies and, in return, the state government required the school management to both collect purchase receipts and deliver a certificate confirming the purchase of the bicycle. Eligibility for the program between 2006 and 2008 required only enrollment in secondary education, attendance at classes was not required.

Some features of the program's design are worth highlighting. First, the design served to provide flexibility in purchasing the bicycle according to the participant's preferences. Second, it avoided the large-scale acquisition and distribution of bicycles by state public authorities. Finally, it designated that the money would be spent in a way that would increase the demand for secondary education and decrease the daily cost of going to school.

The program was very well implemented, only 3% of families with potential beneficiaries did not receive the money to buy bicycles and only 2% of those who received the money did not purchase the bicycle. The following are some reasons for the effectiveness of the program: (i) the eligibility of every girl entering secondary school; (ii) the ease of monitoring the transfer of a single installment of money; (iii) participation in a public ceremony created popular pressure to spend money on purchasing the bicycle; (iv) the difficulty in denying the participation of the target audience by public agents; and (v) the commitment of political leaders to the program.

Methodology

The variable of interest is whether a student enrolled in or completed the first year of secondary education due to purchasing the bicycles. The effect was measured in two ways that will be explored below.

Using a nationally representative survey of families between 2007 and 2008 (approximately 18 months after the start of the Bicicleta Program), one can compare female family members who were between 14 and 15 years old, the typical entry age into secondary school, to members between 16 and 17 years old, also female. The comparison is made since young women between 14 and 15 years old were eligible for the program, while young women between 16 and 17 years old entered secondary education before the incentive began. Therefore, the treatment group is young women between 14 and 15 years old and the control group is made up of young women between 16 and 17 years old.

The objective is to estimate the difference in average enrollment between these two groups to isolate the effect caused by the program. Part of the difference, however, may still be caused by other factors, since, as noted previously, the state of Bihar was increasing spending on education during the period. In this way, boys are also used as a control group, since they are affected by the increase in spending, but are not eligible for the program. One last factor must also be taken into consideration, the difference in the number of enrollments by gender. Being at a lower point, the hypothesis was that the enrollment of young females would grow faster than that of males.

In order to isolate the desired effect, the average enrollment of female students between 14 and 15 years old in Bihar is compared, after subtracting the average of girls between 16 and 17 years old and the average of boys, with the average of the same group after adopt the same procedure as neighboring state Jharkhand. Using Jharkhand for comparison makes sense since both states had the same administration until 2001, when they separated, and had the same growth trend in pre-program enrollment.

The second way goes further and explores the idea that the initiative had a heterogeneous impact on the students, that is, the further they lived from a secondary school, the greater the impact suffered, since the bicycle reduces the cost of getting around for the students. Therefore, in addition to the entire process described above, the students were qualified between two groups, one that was above and the other below 3 kilometers away from a secondary school. Discover the excitement of online kasyno games at prawdziwe pieniądze! We recommend that you find more information and detailed reviews about the best online casinos in Poland on Rankingcasino.pl. Visit Rankingcasino.pl now and start your journey of entertainment and possible winnings! This classification allows us to capture the uneven effect of the program.

Results

First method: Enrollment or completion of the first year of secondary education for a young woman increased by 5.2 percentage points due to the Bicycle Program. This value represents 32% of the entire increase in enrollment of young women between 14 and 15 years old. Furthermore, it is possible to compare enrollment growth trends between girls and boys and account for 40% of the decline in the difference between genders for the Bicycle Program.

Second method: Taking into account the heterogeneous effect, the results suggest that the impacts of the program are mainly due to those who live more than 3 kilometers from a school. For young women living far away, the Bicicleta Program increased enrollment or completion in the first year of secondary education by 8.75 percentage points. The value represents 87% of the entire increase in this group and 54% of the decrease in the difference between genders. On the other hand, for girls who already lived close to a school, the program had no impact.

Public Policy Lessons

The Bicycle Program was an innovative public policy with a lot of visibility and some lessons learned. First, transfer initiatives can go beyond passing money to families. Second, public policies that directly attack restrictions on going to school are effective, such as the case of bicycles, which reduce the cost of transportation. Finally, the reasons for the success of the Bicycle Program can be translated to other contexts and help in the formulation of policies that encourage going to school in other countries and regions.

Reference

Muralidharan, Karthik; Nishith Prakash. "Cycling to School: Increasing Secondary School Enrollment for Girls in India", American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 9 (3): 321-50. 2017.