NO : WP-2024-013
AUTHOR : Surabhi Garg and Srijit Mishra
TITLE : Effect of Demand and Supply Side Factors on School Education Outcomes in India
ABSTRACT :
A novelty of this study is to examine the effect of both demand and supply side factors on school education outcomes in India for 6-18 age group in 2019 by combining three different data sets, viz., Time Use Survey (TUS) 2019, Unified District Information Systems for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2019-20, and sub-group consistent population for 2019 extrapolated from Census of India. The proxies for demand side factors are gender, caste, religion and parents’ education and the proxies for supply side factors are pupil-teacher ratio, infrastructure facilities and number of schools per school going age population. A two-stage Heckman Selection Model is used for the analysis. The model does a probit estimation at the first stage, with the dependent variable as whether the child attended the school or not. At the second stage, a least square estimation is done with the dependent variable as instructional time of the child in school. It is observed that both demand and supply side factors affect the probability of a child attending the school. However, at the second stage, it is observed that a higher number of proxies for supply side factors turn out to be significant in affecting the instructional time spent by the child in school. Given that the two-stage Heckman regression is based on the premise that higher instructional school time is associated with better education outcomes, it is difficult to place a cap on school time, especially for children with different characteristics and capabilities. Instead, a cap on the time mandated by schools is used for a robustness check. These estimation results also resonate with the baseline analysis. To wit, while both demand and supply side factors are relevant, the role of the State in facilitating the supply side factors has important public policy implications.
Keywords: Demand Side Factors, Heckman Selection Model, India, School Education Outcomes, Supply Side Factors
JEL Code : C30, C55, C81, C82, I21, I24, I25
Weblink: http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2024-013.pdf
