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Returns to Education in India

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  • Fulford, Scott

Abstract

In India both men and women with more education live in households with greater consumption per capita. Yet aggregating across age cohorts and states, an extra year of education brings male cohorts only 4% more consumption and provides no additional consumption for female cohorts. This result is robust to: (1) accounting for survey measurement error, (2) different measures of household consumption and composition, (3) allowing returns to differ by state and school quality, and (4) age misreporting. The only area with substantial returns is entering into regular wage work which still employs only a small fraction of the population.

Suggested Citation

  • Fulford, Scott, 2014. "Returns to Education in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 434-450.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:59:y:2014:i:c:p:434-450
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.02.005
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    2. Mohd. Imran Khan & Pallavi Wats & Jannet Jacob Farida, 2023. "Gender Differences in Returns to Self-employment in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 66(1), pages 239-266, March.
    3. Jeyapraba Suresh, 2023. "Poverty is Lack of Capabilities: A Literature Review," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(3), pages 462-476, March.
    4. Teralynn Ludwick & Marie Ishida & Sapna Desai & Ajay Mahal, 2022. "Witnessing Intimate Partner Violence Impacts Schooling and Labor Market Outcomes for Young Women in India," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 48(2), pages 505-543, June.
    5. Roychowdhury, Punarjit, 2021. "(Em)Powered by Science? Estimating the Relative Labor Market Returns to Majoring in Science in High School in India," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    6. Schwieren, Christiane & Klonner, Stefan & Pal, Sumantra, 2020. "Equality of the Sexes and Gender Differences in Competition: Evidence from Three Traditional Societies," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224523, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    7. Nakajima, Maki & Kijima, Yoko & Otsuka, Keijiro, 2018. "Is the learning crisis responsible for school dropout? A longitudinal study of Andhra Pradesh, India," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 245-253.
    8. Klaus Deininger & Songqing Jin & Hari K. Nagarajan & Fang Xia, 2019. "Inheritance Law Reform, Empowerment, and Human Capital Accumulation: Second-Generation Effects from India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(12), pages 2549-2571, December.
    9. Chen, Jie & Kanjilal-Bhaduri, Sanghamitra & Pastore, Francesco, 2022. "Updates on Returns to Education in India: Analysis Using PLFS 2018-19 Data," IZA Discussion Papers 15002, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Gille, Véronique, 2015. "Distribution of human capital and income: An empirical study on Indian States," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 239-256.
    11. Rumman Khan, 2021. "Assessing Sampling Error in Pseudo‐Panel Models," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 83(3), pages 742-769, June.
    12. Muhammed Refeque & P. Azad, 2022. "How do linguistic and technical skills affect earnings in India?," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 23-57, June.
    13. Priyanka, Sadia, 2020. "Do female politicians matter for female labor market outcomes? Evidence from state legislative elections in India," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    14. Dr Mohammad Rafiqul Islam & Dr Nicholas Sim, 2021. "Education and Food Consumption Patterns: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Indonesia," Papers 2109.08124, arXiv.org.
    15. Rumman Khan, 2018. "Assessing cohort aggregation to minimise bias in pseudo-panels," Discussion Papers 2018-01, University of Nottingham, CREDIT.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Asia; India; returns to education; school quality; aggregate versus individual returns; age misreporting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education

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