Impact of income inequality in society on the gender gap in primary school education
Student name: Ms Ankita Rathi
Guide: Dr Kavita Sardana
Year of completion: 2012
Host Organisation: TERI University
Abstract: The millennium development goal accorded gender equality as one of the primary
objectives. Although primary schooling is free in India, there are various factors that
refrain the children from going to school. Disparities in income have increased over the
past time. Using the National Sample Survey Data on India, 64th round, 2007-2008, the
paper uses a two period overlapping generations model and a multivariate regression
technique to test the impact of income inequality on the gender disparities in primary
school education in India for children in the age group 6-11. The theoretical results
show that an increase in income inequality reduces the female educational attainment
more in comparison to the male. The empirical results also support this argument. The
analysis shows that higher income disparities are associated with higher gender
differential in primary school education, and the impact is stronger for the children in
the lower income class as compared to the higher income class.
