Do Call Centers Promote School Enrollment? Evidence from India

Emily Oster and M. Bryce Millett
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Bryce Millett Steinberg

No 15922, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Over the last two decades in India there have been large increases in outsourced jobs and large increases in schooling rates, particularly in English. Existing evidence suggests the trends are broadly related. In this paper we explore how localized these impacts are; this has implications for understanding how quickly information about these jobs diffuses. We use panel data on school enrollment from a comprehensive school-level administrative dataset. This is merged with detailed data on Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) center location and founding dates. Using school fixed effects, we estimate the impact of introducing a new ITES center in the vicinity of the school on enrollment. We find that introducing a new ITES center results in a 5.7% increase in number of children enrolled; these effects are extremely localized. We argue this result is not driven by pre-trends in enrollment or endogenous center placement, and is not a result of ITES-center induced changes in population or increases in income. The effect is driven entirely by English-language schools, consistent with the claim that the impacts are driven by changes in returns to schooling.

JEL-codes: I21 J21 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-04
Note: CH ED LS
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Published as “ Do IT Service Centers Promote School Enrollment? Evidence from India ” (with Bryce Millett). Journal of Development Economics, 104: 123 - 135 (September 2013).

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