School quality, school cost, and the public/private school choices of low-income households in Pakistan

Variation in school attributes, proximity, and fees across neighborhoods is used to identify factors that affect whether poor households send their ch ildren to government school. private school, or no school. Analysis shows t hat even the poorest households use private schools extensively, and that u tilization increases with income. Lowering private school fees or distance or raising measured quality mises private school enrollments, partly by tra nsfers from government schools and partly from enrollments of children who otherwise would nor have gone to school. The strong demand for private scho ols is consistent with evidence of greater mathematics and language achieve ment in private schools than in government schools. These results strongly support an increased role for private delivery of schooling services to poo r households in developing countries.