Background
Older children in developing countries are often charged with the care
of their younger siblings and other domestic duties, especially when
mothers work outside of the home (1)\cite{unicef2006}. The presence of older children in
a household (particularly children aged 12 and above) also increases the
probability that a mother will work outside the home \cite{Wong_1992,Connelly_1996,n2000} (2-5), and
decreases the probability that a family will enroll younger children in
formal daycare, if available. Sibling caregiving, while a potentially
considerable time investment on the part of the older sibling, is not an
inherently negative exposure - in fact, it might benefit the development
of both siblings in important ways \cite{East_2013}. However, excessive
caregiving may have an adverse effect on older siblings: children with a
high burden of care may have impaired social skill development and
reduced educational attainment \cite{East_2013,Becker_2007,Yi_2012} .
In most settings, but particularly in the developing world, caregiving
and other household responsibilities tend to fall more heavily on girls
than boys, especially as children progress through adolescence \cite{unicef2005,de2011probe}.
One study reported that the probability of a child being in full-time
non-parental care increased by 3.6 percentage points for each teen
daughter in the household, suggesting a substitution effect \cite{Connelly_1996}. This
increased burden of care may ultimately translate into decreased
educational participation. Whereas the effect of caregiving may be larger among
girls, the impact on education among older siblings may be
detectable regardless of sex. In Ghana, for example, one study reported
an inverse relationship (and potentially a dose-response effect) between
the household presence of children under 6 years old and the probability
of schooling among older siblings \cite{hunt2008dropping,brock1997factors,canagarajah1997child}
Understanding the impact of caregiving on educational attainment is
particularly important in settings like India, where fewer than 40% of
children are enrolled in secondary school (though this figure varies by
sex, age, region, and other sociodemographic factors) (11, 15-16).
School enrollment is often closely linked to questions of resource
allocation (5, 11), and decisions to enroll or withdraw children are
embedded in a number of (often gendered) expectations about the ultimate
payoff of education. As a result, Indian girls in particular have
historically been less likely to continue in school than their male
counterparts. This gender gap is decreasing, but there remains a
persistent urban/rural divide: in India, as in many other developing
countries, rural girls are less likely to be enrolled in school than
boys (12, 16-18). This imbalance may be related to inadequate
infrastructure (11, 16), but it is also likely that families in rural
areas may not perceive an acceptable “return on investment” in sending
older girls to school, since their time at home is viewed as more
valuable to the family unit (1, 11).
Provision of public, out-of-home childcare may have an impact on the
aforementioned decision-making processes. If affordable, high-quality
childcare is available in a community, families within that community
may be able to reassess their decisions about older children’s school
enrollment. Public care provision could therefore simultaneously
encourage maternal participation in the formal job market (thus allowing
women and their families to emerge from poverty (19)), while also
eliminating much of the domestic/caregiving burden often placed on older
siblings. However, very little empirical evidence exists on the impact
of formal, out-of-home childcare on older siblings’ school enrollment,
likely due in part to the complexity of this relationship (which is
likely confounded by many factors) and the fact that sibling caregivers
are a hidden, and consequently under-researched, group (8-9). One study
(2) found that the availability/accessibility of formal out-of-home care
increased the likelihood of enrollment among young children; although
the authors speculated this would subsequently lead to improved school
enrollment in older siblings, they could not formally test this
hypothesis. Using data from a randomized experiment conducted in India’s
largest state, we aimed to bridge this knowledge gap and assess the
effect of formal childcare availability on older siblings’ school
enrollment.