Abstract
We use data from the Young Lives longitudinal survey to analyse the effect of socioeconomic conditions and gender on the educational performance of young children in India. In particular, we use data for standardised scores on two cognitive tests: the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and a maths test. Our results show that there are significant gender differences in the way that household wealth affects the educational performance of children. Specifically, boys born into wealthier households perform significantly better in maths than those from worse‐off economic backgrounds. The effect of wealth on the PPVT is stronger for girls than it is for boys. The results are robust across a range of specifications. The effect of household wealth on performance differed between the genders, even when we focused our analysis on the bottom 10% and top 10% of the performance distribution. One possible explanation for these differences is parental aspirations. We tested this hypothesis and found that boys from wealthier households with higher parental educational aspirations are positively and significantly associated with higher maths scores. Further analysis showed that the moderating role of parents’ educational aspirations was more pronounced at the top of the test score distribution, an indication that more able children are associated with wealthier and more ambitious parents.
Highlights
This article analyses the effect of gender and socioeconomic conditions on measures of cognitive outcomes of young children in India
The direction of the effects of household wealth is consistent with the results presented in Table 3, and shows positive effects of wealth on educational outcomes, both the size and significance of the estimated coefficient varies depending on gender: boys in wealthier households tend to perform significantly better in the maths test (PPVT), respectively
Our article has considered educational outcomes in the period following the start of these reforms, by using data drawn for India from the Young Lives dataset, a rich longitudinal cohort study of childhood poverty for low-to-middle-income countries
Summary
This article analyses the effect of gender and socioeconomic conditions on measures of cognitive outcomes of young children in India. Our study follows children at different ages and uses panel estimation to identify how factors that determine the socioeconomic status of these children may affect the educational outcomes that these children experience. Our analysis goes beyond the measurement of education as years of schooling. We consider measures of cognitive performance, which can be seen as proxies of the quality of education. Educational attainment and outcomes have been at the centre of public debate in India for nearly three decades, as it became evident that the educational framework of the 1990s and early 2000s was unable to support the fast development the country experienced after the post-1990 market liberalisation reform (Lopez et al, 1999).
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