Karthik Muralidharan|Venkatesh Sundararaman
The Aggregate Effect of School Choice: Evidence from a Two-Stage Experiment in India *
University of California, San Diego
abstract present experimental evidence impact school choice program indian state andhra pradesh provided students voucher finance attending private school choice study design featured unique twostage lotterybased allocation vouchers created studentlevel marketlevel experiments allows us study individual aggregate effects school choice including spillovers two four years program find difference test scores lottery winners losers telugu native language math english sciencesocial studies suggesting large crosssectional differences test scores across public private schools mostly reflect omitted variables however private schools also teach hindi taught public schools lottery winners much higher test scores hindi furthermore mean cost per student private schools sample less third cost public schools thus private schools setting deliver slightly better test score gains public counterparts better hindi subjects substantially lower cost per student finally find evidence spillovers public school students apply voucher private school students suggesting positive effects voucher winners come expense students