IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v115y2025i1p147-82.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Heterogeneity in School Value Added and the Private Premium

Author

Listed:
  • Tahir Andrabi
  • Natalie Bau
  • Jishnu Das
  • Asim I. Khwaja

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Tahir Andrabi & Natalie Bau & Jishnu Das & Asim I. Khwaja, 2025. "Heterogeneity in School Value Added and the Private Premium," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 115(1), pages 147-182, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:115:y:2025:i:1:p:147-82
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.20221422
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20221422
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E208710V2
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20221422.appx
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20221422.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/aer.20221422?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H44 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Goods: Mixed Markets
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:115:y:2025:i:1:p:147-82. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.