School grants and education outcomes: the impacts of a non-salary budget reform in Punjab Pakistan
Whether increasing school funding is effective in improving education quantity and quality is a critical question for the education policymakers. In this essay, we analyze the impacts of a decentralized school grant program in Punjab-Pakistan, the “Non-salary Budget (NSB)” reform. Under this reform,...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
March 2026
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| In: |
International journal of educational development
Year: 2026, Volume: 121, Pages: 1-15 |
| ISSN: | 0738-0593 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2026.103508 |
| Online Access: | Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2026.103508 Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059326000180 
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| Author Notes: | Min Xie, Kafeel Sarwar |
| Summary: | Whether increasing school funding is effective in improving education quantity and quality is a critical question for the education policymakers. In this essay, we analyze the impacts of a decentralized school grant program in Punjab-Pakistan, the “Non-salary Budget (NSB)” reform. Under this reform, each public school received about six times the amount of the grant from government which they had received prior to the reform. To identify the effects of the reform, we explore the spatial and temporal variation of the policy roll-out. We find that the reform has significantly improved the schools’ infrastructure conditions. However, we do not find any discernible effects on student enrollment, attendance rate or test score in the short to medium run. |
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| Item Description: | Online verfügbar: 7. Februar 2026 Gesehen am 18.03.2026 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 0738-0593 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2026.103508 |