Infrastructure and Girls’ Education: Bicycles, Roads, and the Gender Education Gap in India

Moritz Seebacher

No 382, ifo Working Paper Series from ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich

Abstract: How can infrastructure help to reduce the gender education gap in developing countries? In this paper, I analyze the complementarity of all-weather roads and a bicycle program in Bihar, India, which aimed to increase girls’ secondary school enrollment rate. Using Indian household survey data combined with a quadrupledifference estimation strategy, I find that the program’s main beneficiaries are girls living at least 3km away from secondary schools whose villages are connected with all-weather roads. Their net secondary school enrollment rate increased by over 87 percent, reducing the respective gender education gap by around 45 percent. I find no effect for girls living in villages without an all-weather road, suggesting that allweather roads are not just complementary to the bicycle program but a precondition for its success. The findings highlight the importance of well-functioning infrastructure for the accessibility of secondary schools and the empowering of girls in India.

Keywords: Roads; bicycles; infrastructure; girls’ education; gender education gap; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H42 I21 I28 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-edu, nep-gen, nep-tre and nep-ure
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