The Long-Run and Gender-Equalizing Impacts of School Access: Evidence from the First Indochina War

Few studies exist on the long-term impacts of schooling policies in developing countries. We examine the impacts—half a century later—of a mass education program conducted by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam during the First Indochina War (1946–54). Difference-in-differences estimates suggest that school-age children who were exposed to the program obtained significantly more education than their peers who were residing in French-occupied areas. Although we cannot reject the null hypothesis of equal impacts at standard significance levels, when estimated separately, the impacts are statistically significant for school-age girls and not for school-age boys. Various robustness checks support these findings.