IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ijlaec/v62y2019i4d10.1007_s41027-019-00198-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Short-Term Migration and Children’s School Attendance: Evidence from Rural India

Author

Listed:
  • Leena Bhattacharya

    (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research)

Abstract

Every year, millions of individuals from rural India migrate internally for short periods in search of employment. Temporary migration of parents can affect school attendance of children from these families. This study uses data from National Sample Survey Organisation’s (NSSO) Situation Assessment Survey 2013 to examine whether having a short-term migrant member in the family affects school attendance of children aged 6–10 years in rural India. An estimate from logit regression suggests that controlling for individual and family characteristics, village, district controls and NSSO state-region fixed effects, being from a migrant family reduces the probability that a child aged 6–10 years attends school by 15%. A series of robustness checks are done to ascertain the reliability of our finding. First, we assess the extent of potential omitted variable bias and find that our results remain unchanged even after controlling for bias. Second, we use instrumental variable approach since short-term migration of parents and school attendance of children can be driven by unobserved factors. In this method, the presence of a short-term migrant in the family is instrumented by lagged proportion of short-term migrants and lagged proportion of construction workers in the district. Our results remain robust to various specifications.

Suggested Citation

  • Leena Bhattacharya, 2019. "Short-Term Migration and Children’s School Attendance: Evidence from Rural India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(4), pages 659-691, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:62:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s41027-019-00198-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-019-00198-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41027-019-00198-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41027-019-00198-1?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joseph G. Altonji & Todd E. Elder & Christopher R. Taber, 2005. "Selection on Observed and Unobserved Variables: Assessing the Effectiveness of Catholic Schools," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 151-184, February.
    2. Chang, Hongqin & Dong, Xiao-yuan & MacPhail, Fiona, 2011. "Labor Migration and Time Use Patterns of the Left-behind Children and Elderly in Rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 2199-2210.
    3. Emily Oster, 2019. "Unobservable Selection and Coefficient Stability: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 187-204, April.
    4. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    5. Manisha Shah & Bryce Steinberg, 2019. "The Right to Education Act: Trends in Enrollment, Test Scores, and School Quality," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 109, pages 232-238, May.
    6. Zhang, Hongliang & Behrman, Jere R. & Fan, C. Simon & Wei, Xiangdong & Zhang, Junsen, 2014. "Does parental absence reduce cognitive achievements? Evidence from rural China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 181-195.
    7. Ravi Srivastava & Rajib Sutradhar, 2016. "Labour Migration to the Construction Sector in India and its Impact on Rural Poverty," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 10(1), pages 27-48, April.
    8. Independent Evaluation Group, 2017. "Data for Development," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 28485, August.
    9. Qian Guo & Wenkai Sun & Yijie Wang, 2017. "Effect of Parental Migration on Children's Health in Rural China," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 1132-1157, November.
    10. Joshua Angrist & Victor Lavy & Analia Schlosser, 2010. "Multiple Experiments for the Causal Link between the Quantity and Quality of Children," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(4), pages 773-824, October.
    11. David McKenzie & Hillel Rapoport, 2011. "Can migration reduce educational attainment? Evidence from Mexico," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(4), pages 1331-1358, October.
    12. Diane Coffey & John Papp & Dean Spears, 2015. "Short-Term Labor Migration from Rural North India: Evidence from New Survey Data," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 34(3), pages 361-380, June.
    13. Diane Coffey, 2013. "Children's Welfare and Short-term Migration from Rural India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(8), pages 1101-1117, August.
    14. Chudgar, Amita, 2011. "Female Headship and Schooling Outcomes in Rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 550-560, April.
    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. Alloush, Mo & Bloem, Jeffrey R., 2022. "Neighborhood violence, poverty, and psychological well-being," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    2. Manuel Denzer, 2019. "Estimating Causal Effects in Binary Response Models with Binary Endogenous Explanatory Variables - A Comparison of Possible Estimators," Working Papers 1916, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    3. Saraswat, Deepak, 2024. "Gender composition of children and sanitation behavior in India," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    4. Bishop, Kelly C. & Kuminoff, Nicolai V. & Mathes, Sophie M. & Murphy, Alvin D., 2024. "The marginal cost of mortality risk reduction: Evidence from housing markets," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    5. Alexander S. Skorobogatov, 2021. "The effect of alcohol sales restrictions on alcohol poisoning mortality: Evidence from Russia," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1417-1442, June.
    6. Amorim, Guilherme & Lima, Rafael Costa & Sampaio, Breno, 2022. "Broadband internet and protests: Evidence from the Occupy movement," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    7. Bertocchi, Graziella & Dimico, Arcangelo & Tedeschi, Gian Luca, 2022. "Strangers and Foreigners: Trust and Attitudes toward Citizenship," IZA Discussion Papers 15042, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Zhang, Yi & Liu, Chun, 2021. "Religion and unproductive entrepreneurship: The role of risk aversion," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    9. Angelini, Viola & Costa-Font, Joan, 2023. "Health and wellbeing spillovers of a partner's cancer diagnosis," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 422-437.
    10. Noy, Shakked & Sin, Isabelle, 2021. "The effects of neighbourhood and workplace income comparisons on subjective wellbeing," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 918-945.
    11. Roberto Ezcurra, 2024. "Sunlight, culture and state capacity," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(2), pages 285-315, May.
    12. Roberto Ezcurra, 2024. "Kin networks and quality of government: a regional analysis," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 73(4), pages 2117-2142, December.
    13. Howell, Anthony, 2024. "Rural road stimulus and the role of matching mandates on economic recovery in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    14. Burdin, Gabriel & Garcia-Louzao, Jose, 2025. "Employee-owned firms and the careers of young workers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    15. Riccardo Turati, 2020. "Network-based Connectedness and the Diffusion of Cultural Traits," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2020012, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    16. Cheng, Jiameng & Dai, Yanke & Lin, Shu & Ye, Haichun, 2021. "Clan culture and family ownership concentration: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    17. Yu Bai & Linxiu Zhang & Chengfang Liu & Yaojiang Shi & Di Mo & Scott Rozelle, 2018. "Effect of Parental Migration on the Academic Performance of Left Behind Children in North Western China," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(7), pages 1154-1170, July.
    18. Xin Meng & Chikako Yamauchi, 2015. "Children of Migrants: The Cumulative Impact of Parental Migration on their Children's Education and Health Outcomes," GRIPS Discussion Papers 15-07, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
    19. Nikolova, Milena & Popova, Olga & Otrachshenko, Vladimir, 2022. "Stalin and the origins of mistrust," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    20. Chang, Fang & Jiang, Yuxi & Loyalka, Prashant & Chu, James & Shi, Yaojiang & Osborn, Annie & Rozelle, Scott, 2019. "Parental migration, educational achievement, and mental health of junior high school students in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 337-349.

    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:spr:ijlaec:v:62:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s41027-019-00198-1. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.