Can Redistributing Teachers Across Schools Raise Educational Attainment? Evidence from Operation Blackboard in India

I evaluate a reform in India which sought to provide a second teacher to all one-teacher primary schools. The central government paid for 140,000 teachers, which is 8% of the pre-reform stock of primary-level teachers. I find that less than half of these teachers were sent to the intended place. Additionally, teachers per school did not increase and class size did not decrease. The only effect on school inputs appears to have been the redistribution of teachers from larger schools to smaller schools. This nevertheless generated increases in the primary school completion rate, especially for girls and the poor. JEL Classification: I22, I28, J13, O15