Demand or supply for schooling in rural India?

Abstract

Is the poor human capital investment of rural Indian families primarily a supply side or a demand side issue? Can time use data help analyze some of the hidden dimensions of development? We examine school attendance and total human capital investment time (time in school plus travel time plus in-home instructional time) using the Indian Time Use Survey of 1998-1999 and the 7th All India School Education Survey (AISES). Probit and sample selection bias regression estimates indicate that the influence of supply side factors (school quality and availability) is large relative to the impact of household characteristics (e.g. low income). We discuss the policy implications and illustrate the advantages of time use data in analysis of development.

Child Work and Schooling in Rural India: What Do Time Use Data Say about Trade-offs and Drivers of Human Capital Investment?

“…There has been some work on the child schooling-work trade-off in India (Cigno & Rosati, 2002;Ray, 2000;Rosenzweig & Evenson, 1977;Skoufias, 1994). However, there are few systematic inquiries into how children spend their time (see Morrow, 2015;Morrow & Vennam, 2010;Motiram & Osberg, 2011;Singh & Khan, 2016, for research using Young Lives data). The analysis of children's time use is particularly pertinent in India because though school enrolment rates have increased rapidly in the past two decades, many are nominally enrolled, and attendance tends to be highly variable.…”

Unemployment burden and its distribution: Theory and evidence from India

“…In particular, girls/women are expected to take care of domestic chores and this affects their participation in labor markets and employment prospects. Moreover, there is considerable concern regarding gender equity in India since women/girls lag behind their male counterparts on several important indicators, for example, level of education (see e.g., Human Development Report [HDR], ; Dreze & Sen, ; Motiram & Osberg, ; and the references therein).…”