IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/oxf/wpaper/393.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Intrahousehold Allocation of Education Expenditure and Returns to Education: The Case of Sri Lanka

Author

Listed:
  • Rozana Himaz

Abstract

This paper uses demand analysis to explore whether intrahousehold allocation of education expenditure differs between boys and girls in rural Sri Lanka. Contrary to most countries in South Asia a significant bias favouring girls is found in 1990/91 for the 5-9 and 17-19 age groups and in 1995/96 for the 5-9 and 14-16 age groups. The 5-9 age group captures the run-up to the Year 5 scholarship exams that are used to gain entry into better performing secondary schools. The 14-16 and 17-19 age groups capture those who read for important National level qualifications vital in the job market. The paper argues that these household level decisions are rational because wage returns to junior and senior secondary education have been higher for females than for males through the 1980s and 1990s.

Suggested Citation

  • Rozana Himaz, 2008. "Intrahousehold Allocation of Education Expenditure and Returns to Education: The Case of Sri Lanka," Economics Series Working Papers 393, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:oxf:wpaper:393
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/materials/working_papers/paper393.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Geeta G. Kingdon, 2003. "Where has all the bias gone? Detecting gender-bias in the household allocation of educational expenditure," CSAE Working Paper Series 2003-13, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    2. George Psacharopoulos & Harry Anthony Patrinos, 2004. "Returns to investment in education: a further update," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 111-134.
    3. Richard Blundell & Lorraine Dearden & Barbara Sianesi, 2003. "Evaluating the impact of education on earnings in the UK: Models, methods and results from the NCDS," IFS Working Papers W03/20, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    4. Angus Deaton & Christina Paxson, 1998. "Economies of Scale, Household Size, and the Demand for Food," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(5), pages 897-930, October.
    5. Orley Ashenfelter & David J. Zimmerman, 1997. "Estimates Of The Returns To Schooling From Sibling Data: Fathers, Sons, And Brothers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(1), pages 1-9, February.
    6. Sahn, David E. & Alderman, Harold, 1988. "The effects of human capital on wages, and the determinants of labor supply in a developing country," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 157-183, September.
    7. Deaton,Angus & Muellbauer,John, 1980. "Economics and Consumer Behavior," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521296762, April.
    8. Gannicott, Kenneth, 1986. "Women, Wages, and Discrimination: Some Evidence from Taiwan," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(4), pages 721-730, July.
    9. Liu, Zhiqiang, 1998. "Earnings, Education, and Economic Reforms in Urban China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(4), pages 697-725, July.
    10. Behrman, Jere R & Wolfe, Barbara L, 1984. "The Socioeconomic Impact of Schooling in a Developing Country," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(2), pages 296-303, May.
    11. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Publishing House "SINERGIA PRESS", vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    12. Burgess, Robin & Zhuang, Juzhong, 2000. "Modernisation and son preference," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 2115, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Deaton, Angus S & Ruiz-Castillo, Javier & Thomas, Duncan, 1989. "The Influence of Household Composition on Household Expenditure Patterns: Theory and Spanish Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(1), pages 179-200, February.
    14. Erich Battistin, 2002. "Errors in Survey Reports of Consumption Expenditures," 10th International Conference on Panel Data, Berlin, July 5-6, 2002 C4-2, International Conferences on Panel Data.
    15. James J. Heckman & Thomas E. Macurdy, 1980. "A Life Cycle Model of Female Labour Supply," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 47(1), pages 47-74.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cristina Cattaneo, 2012. "Migrants’ international transfers and educational expenditure," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 20(1), pages 163-193, January.
    2. Jacob, Arun, 2016. "Gender Bias in Educational Attainment in India : The Role of Dowry Payments," MPRA Paper 76338, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Laura Zimmermann, 2012. "Reconsidering Gender Bias in Intrahousehold Allocation in India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(1), pages 151-163, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Intrahousehold Allocation; Returns to Education; Gender;

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:oxf:wpaper:393. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Anne Pouliquen). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/sfeixuk.html .

    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 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.