IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/soueco/v10y2009i2p371-402.html

Determinants of Participation in Higher Education and Choice of Disciplines

Author

Listed:
  • Anindita Chakrabarti

    (Anindita Chakrabarti is Associate Professor in Madras School of Economics, Gandhi Mandapam Road, Kottur, Chennai 600025. Email: anindita_ch@hotmail.com; anindita@mse.ac.in)

Abstract

The primary focus of this article is to examine the role played by economic, social and demographic characteristics in determining the likelihood of participation in higher education for both rural and urban youth in India. Using data from the National Sample Survey (NSS), we examine how household’s demand for higher education is governed by its social composition, gender-related aspects, economic background and cost of acquisition of education. We also estimate significance of these factors in explaining choice of different stream of studies, for example, Arts, Commerce, Science and Technical Education. Youth belonging to schedule caste (SC) and schedule tribe (ST) background have significantly lower odds of going to a higher educational institution compared to other social groups in rural area. The gender impact in terms of higher education participation is more pronounced for the highest income/expenditure quartile for both urban and rural region. Even after controlling for gender, economic and social identity, educational profile of household head exerts a significant impact on the higher educational attendance. Rising cost of higher education exerts a significant detrimental impact on the odds of participation in higher education. Analysis of choice of individual discipline of higher education reveals that female youth have significantly higher odds of attending a higher education institution for Arts/Humanities course in urban India as compared to her male counterpart. However, for every other stream, that is, Science, Commerce, Medicine, Engineering and other professional courses, there is a strong gender bias against female even after controlling for social and economic background of the household.

Suggested Citation

  • Anindita Chakrabarti, 2009. "Determinants of Participation in Higher Education and Choice of Disciplines," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 10(2), pages 371-402, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:soueco:v:10:y:2009:i:2:p:371-402
    DOI: 10.1177/139156140901000205
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/139156140901000205
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/139156140901000205?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gary S. Becker, 1981. "A Treatise on the Family," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck81-1, January.
    2. G. Gandhi Kingdon, 2002. "The Gender Gap in Educational Attainment in India: How Much Can Be Explained?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(2), pages 25-53.
    3. Pushkar Maitra, 2003. "Schooling and Educational Attainment: Evidence from Bangladesh," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 129-153.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francesca Marchetta & David E. Sahn, 2016. "The Role of Education and Family Background in Marriage, Childbearing, and Labor Market Participation in Senegal," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(2), pages 369-403.
    2. Mussa, Richard, 2009. "Household economic status, schooling costs, and schooling bias against non-biological children in Malawi," MPRA Paper 15855, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 21 Jun 2009.
    3. Alessandro Cigno, 2007. "A Theoretical Analysis of the Effects of Legislation on Marriage, Fertility, Domestic Division of Labour, and the Education of Children," CESifo Working Paper Series 2143, CESifo.
    4. Lamia Kandil & Hélène Perivier, 2017. "La division sexuée du travail dans les couples selon le statut marital en France - une étude à partir des enquêtes emploi du temps de 1985-1986, 1998-1999, et 2009-2010," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2017-03, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    5. repec:plo:pone00:0160320 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Robert Kaestner, 1995. "The Effects of Cocaine and Marijuana Use on Marriage and Marital Stability," NBER Working Papers 5038, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Yan Yu, 2015. "The Male Breadwinner/Female Homemaker Model and Perceived Marital Stability: A Comparison of Chinese Wives in the United States and Urban China," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 34-47, March.
    8. Kota Ogasawara & Mizuki Komura, 2022. "Consequences of war: Japan’s demographic transition and the marriage market," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(3), pages 1037-1069, July.
    9. Allan Puur & Leen Rahnu & Liili Abuladze & Luule Sakkeus & Sergei Zakharov, 2017. "Childbearing among first- and second-generation Russians in Estonia against the background of the sending and host countries," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 36(41), pages 1209-1254.
    10. Sunnee Billingsley, 2010. "The Post-Communist Fertility Puzzle," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 29(2), pages 193-231, April.
    11. Ahn, Kunwon & Winters, John V., 2025. "Causal Effects of Education on Marriage," IZA Discussion Papers 17665, IZA Network @ LISER.
    12. Marcén, Miriam & Molina, José Alberto & Morales, Marina, 2018. "The effect of culture on the fertility decisions of immigrant women in the United States," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 15-28.
    13. Peggy Barlett & Linda Lobao & Katherine Meyer, 1999. "Diversity in attitudes toward farming and patterns of work among farm women: A regional comparison," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 16(4), pages 343-354, December.
    14. Nandi, Arindam & Sahoo, Soham & Haberland, Nicole & Ngô, Thoại D., 2023. "A glass ceiling at the playhouse? Gender gaps in public and private preschool enrollment in India," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    15. Michael E. Martell & Peyton Nash, 2020. "For Love and Money? Earnings and Marriage Among Same-Sex Couples," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 260-294, September.
    16. William S. Schulze & Michael H. Lubatkin & Richard N. Dino, 2002. "Altruism, agency, and the competitiveness of family firms," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(4-5), pages 247-259.
    17. Luis Garicano & Thomas N. Hubbard, 2016. "The Returns to Knowledge Hierarchies," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 32(4), pages 653-684.
    18. Jeffrey T. Macher & John W. Mayo & Olga Ukhaneva & Glenn A. Woroch, 2017. "From universal service to universal connectivity," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 77-104, August.
    19. Ravi Prakash & Abhishek Singh, 2014. "Who Marries Whom? Changing Mate Selection Preferences in Urban India and Emerging Implications on Social Institutions," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 33(2), pages 205-227, April.
    20. Kazungu, Khatibu & Byaro, Mwoya, 2023. "Road to Divorce in Tanzania: What are the Main Factors?," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 11(5), December.
    21. Corno, Lucia & Voena, Alessandra, 2023. "Child marriage as informal insurance: Empirical evidence and policy simulations," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:soueco:v:10:y:2009:i:2:p:371-402. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ips.lk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.