Events of ADRI (Patna - Ranchi)
Speaker : Dr. Somdeep Chatterjee, IIM, Lucknow
Title: (En-)`lightening' Children: Assessing the Impacts of Access to Electricity on Learning Achievement Levels
Speaker: Dr. Somdeep Chatterjee, IIM, Lucknow
Date and Time: 2nd June 2021 at 3.00 PM(IST)
Zoom Link Meeting: Link
Meeting ID: 853 8588 6280
Abstract: The welfare impacts of electrification are well documented in the literature, including the effects of access to electricity on school enrollment. However, the evidence on spillover effects of electrification on children's achievement levels are scarce. We use a fixed-effects estimation strategy to establish the relationship between electrification and test scores, using nationally representative household panel data from India. We find that children with access to electricity have higher reading, math, and writing test scores. In terms of effect sizes, children with electricity access have around 13% (0.251 σ) higher reading scores, 13% (0.200 σ) higher math scores, and 8%(0.163 σ) higher writing scores when compared to those who don't have access to electricity. To account for potential endogeneity in the measure of access to electricity, we use three alternative identification strategies and find similar and consistent results. The methods include matching using propensity scores and two-stage least squares regressions using village level electrification as an instrumental variable. The third strategy makes use of quasi-experimental policy variation from a state level universal electrification program in West Bengal on a repeated cross-sectional dataset. We identify an increase in time spent by children on study-related activities as the potential channel for this positive effect.
Speaker Profile: Dr. Somdeep Chatterjee is the Chairperson of the Business Environment Area and an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of Houston and completed his Masters’ and Bachelors’ in Economics from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He works mostly on topics in empirical development economics, political economy and economics of education. Somdeep is a Fellow of the Global Labor Organization and is a member of the Chartered Management Institute (UK).