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.