The Effect of Proximity on School Enrollment: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Afghanistan

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009, Center for Global Development and The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies presented a Massachusetts Avenue Development Seminar (MADS)* on The Effect of Proximity on School Enrollment: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Afghanistan featuring Leigh Linden, Assistant Professor, Columbia University.  Jeanne Lafortune, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland, served as the discussant.

Paper abstract: We conduct a randomized evaluation to assess the causal effect of distance on children's academic participation and performance. Based on estimates from a sample of 31 villages and over 1,500 children in rural northwestern Afghanistan, the program significantly increases enrollment and test scores amongst all children and dramatically improves the existing gender disparities. The intervention increases formal school enrollment by 47 percentage points among all children and increases test scores by 0.59 standard deviations. For those children who enroll in school, average test scores increase by 1.2 standard deviations. Overall, children prove very sensitive to changes in the distance to the nearest school. Enrollment falls by 16 percentage points for every mile that children must travel to school and test scores fall by 0.19 standard deviations. Girls prove more sensitive than boys to changes in the distance to the nearest school. So much so that providing a community based school virtually eliminates the gender gap in enrollment (from 21 percentage points in control villages) and reduces the test score disparity by a third after a single year. 

Access paper (pdf, 267K)

*The Massachusetts Avenue Development Seminar (MADS) series is an effort by the Center for Global Development and The Paul H Nitze School of Advanced International Studies to take advantage of the incredible concentration of great international development scholars in the Metro Washington, DC area. The series seeks to bring together members of this community and improve communication between them.