From Classrooms to Careers: The Impact of Fee Reimbursement Scheme on Education and Employment

Minali Grover and Ajay Sharma

No 1862, GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Abstract: The paper looks at the Fee Reimbursement Scheme (FRS) which is a conditional higher education scheme reimbursing tuition fees for scheduled caste (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs), and other backward classes (OBCs) along with economically weaker sections students. The policy was implemented in 2008 in Andhra Pradesh (a state in India) with the aim to increase access to higher education to disadvantaged social groups. This study analyses the impact of FRS on educational and labour outcomes. Using nationally representative individual-level data, we employ triple difference methodology to estimate the causal impact of FRS. Overall, we find two main results. First, there is an increase in likelihood of graduation for the treated cohort with a decrease in the private tuition fee expenditure as the potential mechanism. Secondly, looking at the potential labour market entry age-cohort, the findings indicate no improvement in the labour market outcomes. The two suggestive mechanisms identified are over-education and out-migration for the treated cohort. The results are validated using alternate method using semi parametric difference-in-difference (SDID) method, falsification tests and other robustness analysis. The study highlights how conditional higher education intervention not necessarily improve employment opportunities.

Keywords: education; subsidy; India; fee reimbursement; employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I23 I28 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:glodps:1862

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