Gender, Geography, and Generations: Intergenerational Educational Mobility in Post-Reform India. (August 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Emran, M. Shahe; Shilpi, Forhad
• Is Part Of: World development. Volume 72(2015)
• Page Start: 362
• Page End: 380
• Publication Date: 2015-08
• Subjects: intergenerational mobility -- education -- sibling correlation -- intergenerational correlation -- rural–urban inequality -- gender gap; Economic history -- 1990- -- Periodicals; Economic assistance -- Developing countries -- Periodicals; 330.9
• DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.03.009
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0305-750X

Abstract

Summary: The existing studies report substantial improvements in educational mobility in post-reform India using intergenerational regression coefficient (IGRC) across age cohorts in a cross-section survey. In contrast, our estimates of sibling (SC) and intergenerational (IGC) correlations for the same age cohort from two surveys show strong persistence, stronger than in Latin America, which remained largely unchanged from 1991–92 to 2006. Only the women in urban areas experienced substantial improvements, with the lower caste urban women benefitting the most. As measures of mobility, IGC and SC are more informative and robust than IGRC, and the widely accepted conclusions based on IGRC alone may be misleading.