Education and earning linkages of regular and casual workers in India: a quantile regression approach

The central idea of the present study is to re-establish the importance of human capital variables (education and experience) at all India level and also at the disaggregated level of gender (male/female) across regular and casual workers using NSS 68th round. This is the latest employment–unemployment unit-level records pertaining to year 2011–2012. The paper examines the impact of human capital variables, household factors, job-related factors, individual characteristics and locational factors on earnings of an individual. Separate augmented Mincerian equations have been used for regular and casual workers, further subdivided at the level of male and female. The method of quantile regression has been used to estimate the augmented Mincerian equation at the above-mentioned disaggregated levels. The present study showcases that human capital variables, household factors, job-related factors, individual characteristics and locational factors impact regular and casual workers differently, the variation being further pronounced when disaggregated at the level of gender. Interestingly, human capital variables impact the earnings of regular workers (male and female) and casual (male and female) workers positively. Factoring the growing informalisation (not being entitled to social security benefits) in the regular form of employment, the study showcases a wide disparity within the regular workers. Thus, an attempt has been made to unfold primarily the interplay between education and earnings at various disaggregated levels.