The Effect of Private Schools on Measures of Socio-Emotional Development in Adolescence : Evidence from India

This paper uses a semiparametric structural model of school choice to identify the effects of private school during early adolescence on composite measures of self-efficacy and self-esteem in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The average treatment effect of attending private school is an increase in self-efficacy and self-esteem measures of 0.16 and 0.22 standard deviations between ages twelve and fifteen. These results are within the range of credible estimates of private school effects on cognitive outcomes in India, suggesting that private school may play at least as significant a role in early psychosocial as in cognitive development