40 research outputs found
School choice in rural India : perceptions and realities in four states
Indian parents are faced with more choices of schools, but with less information on schools and schooling. The study across four states in rural India suggests that perceptions of teachingālearning, discipline, and safety of children in schools determine school choice among parents. Expenses are a critical consideration for parents who send children to public schools, while the English medium is important for parents of children going to private schools. However, parental choices of low-fee private schools are often not based on accurate information, and parents emphasise many educationally unimportant but aspirational factors. The marketing efforts of schools and cultural aspirations of parents reinforce each other, allowing for a situation in which actual educational outcomes can be subordinated, or worse, undermined
Are educated leaders good for education? evidence from India
Formal
education
is
often
viewed
as
a
proxy
for
the
quality
of
leaders.
Recently,
candidates
with
low
education
levels
have
been
disqualiļ¬ed
from
contesting
local
elections
in
some
states
in
India.
But
there
is
no
conclusive
evidence
linking
education
to
the
effectiveness
of
leaders.
Against
this
backdrop,
we
investigate
whether
having
educated
political
lead
ers
in
the
state
legislatures
in
India
improves
education
outcomes.
Using
comprehensive
data
on
various
outcomes
such
as
learning
levels,
enrollment,
school
funding
and
infras
tructure,
we
ļ¬nd
that
the
effectiveness
of
educated
leaders
depends
on
the
initial
level
of
development
of
the
state.
Educated
leaders
yield
better
education
outcomes
for
their
con
stituents
only
in
those
states
where
the
initial
level
of
development
is
high.
There
is
no
impact
of
educated
leaders
in
less-developed
states
or
in
the
overall
sample.
Our
identiļ¬
cation
strategy
is
based
on
an
instrumental
variable
that
exploits
the
quasi-experimental
election
outcomes
of
close
elections
between
educated
and
less-educated
politicians.
The
results
are
consistent
throughout
various
robustness
analyses.
These
ļ¬ndings
have
implica
tions
for
recent
policy
changes
mandating
minimum
education
requirements
on
candidates
in
two
states
and
similar
proposed
changes
in
other
states
School choice in rural India: perception versus reality
School choice has increased signicantly in India ā with growth of low-fee private schools ā and this is considered important within a market-based approach to schooling. Based on a eld study across four states in rural India, this article shows how parents emphasise many educationally unimportant, aspirational factors in their choice, and how their choice of low-fee private schools is often based on inaccurate information
The Budget does not help those facing hunger, unemployment and loss of educational opportunities
his Budget was set in the context of a once-in-a-century pandemic that devastated lives and livelihoods in an already slowing Indian economy. The pandemic and the measures to contain it have created a multidimensional crisisāeconomic, nutritional and educationalāin addition to the original, and still ongoing, health crisis. These crises, if not addressed, can have sustained long-term negative ramifications for generations to come. For instance, the pandemic-led job losses may result in a marked shift in the structure of the Indian economy, pushing it towards higher levels of precarity and even lower earnings. The rise in food insecurity that India is experiencing in the face of this pandemic could increase malnutrition levels among mothers and children for many years to come. The learning losses due to the closure of schools could be permanent for many children. Even before the pandemic, Indiaās job market was weak and the nutritional status of its citizens and the learning levels of its children were abysmally poor. This Budget was an opportunity to redress these issues
Pandemic, informality, and vulnerability : impact of COVID-19 on livelihoods in India
We analyze findings from a large-scale survey of around 5000 respondents across 12 states of
India to study the impact of COVID-19 pandemic containment measures (lockdown) on
employment, livelihoods, food security and access to relief measures. We find a massive increase
in unemployment, an equally dramatic fall in earnings among informal workers, large increases in
food insecurity, depletion of savings and patchy coverage of relief measures. Two-thirds of our
respondents lost work. The few informal workers who were still employed during the lockdown
experienced more than a fifty percent drop in their earnings. Even among regular wage workers,
half received either no salary or reduced salary during the lockdown. Almost eighty percent of
surveyed households experienced a reduction in their food intake and a similar percentage of urban
households did not have enough money to pay next month's rent. We also use a set of logistic
regressions to identify how employment loss and food intake varies with individual and household
level characteristics. We find that migrants and urban Muslims are significantly worse off with
respect to employment and food security. Among employment categories, self-employed workers
were more food secure. The Public Distribution System (PDS) system was seen to have the widest
reach among social security measures. However, even under PDS, 16 percent of vulnerable urban
households did not have access to government rations. Further, half of the respondents reported
not receiving any cash transfers (state or central). We conclude that much more is needed in the
way of direct fiscal support that has been announced thus far by state and central governments in
India
Childbirth and womenās labour market transitions in India (revised)
The impact of childbirth on womenās employment has been discussed extensively in the context of developed countries. Constraints on mothersā labour market participation and consequent fall in earnings are characterised as the āmotherhood penaltyā. This phenomenon is relatively less explored in developing countries primarily because of the lack of suitable data. In this paper, we use primary data from India, collected via a life history calendar administered to men and women separately. Using an event study method, we estimate the impact of the first childbirth on womenās labour market participation. Our main finding is that the birth of the first child does not impose a penalty, in the traditional understanding, on a motherās labour supply. While overall employment does not show any association with childbirth, womenās paid work registers a significant increase two to three years post childbirth. This impact is largely due to an increase in informal paid work and driven by women with lower levels of education and from relatively poorer households. Our results suggest that in a developing country like India, characterised by informal labour markets, and early age of childbirth, the impact of motherhood on employment may need an alternate framing rather than one based on developed countries
Do educated leaders aļ¬ect economic growth? evidence from India
We study the impact of electing an educated politician to state legislative assemblies
on economic growth in the politicianās constituency. Intensity of night lights is used to
proxy for constituency-level economic activity and data on all politicians contesting state
elections between 2008 and 2013 is used. Our identiļ¬cation strategy is based on a re
gression discontinuity design that exploits quasi-experimental election outcomes of close
elections between educated and less-educated politicians. We ļ¬nd that having a gradu
ate state representative increases the growth rate of night lights by about 2 percentage
points in the constituency. Though statistically signiļ¬cant, the impact on economic ac
tivity of having an educated leader is substantially lower than that of having a woman
or non-criminally accused leader. Further, the eļ¬ect of educated leaders is heterogeneous
depending on the initial level of development of the state. Our ļ¬ndings have implications
for recent policy changes mandating minimum education requirements of leaders in some
states of India
The global consumption and income project (GCIP): an overview
We introduce two separate datasets (The Global Consumption Dataset (GCD) and The Global Income
Dataset (GID)) making possible an unprecedented portrait of consumption and income of persons over
time, within and across countries, around the world. The current benchmark version of the dataset
presents estimates of monthly real consumption and income for every percentile of the population (a
āconsumption/income profileā) for more than 160 countries and more than half a century (1960-2015). We
describe the construction of the datasets and demonstrate possible uses by presenting some sample results
concerning the distribution of consumption, poverty and inequality in the world