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Tasks and Opportunities Within Indian Families. Sripad Motiram Lars Osberg Department of Economics, Dalhousie University, Halifax Canadian Economics Association June 6, 2008A. Gender Bias, Tasks & Opportunities Within Indian Families?.
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Tasks and Opportunities Within Indian Families Sripad Motiram Lars Osberg Department of Economics, Dalhousie University, Halifax Canadian Economics Association June 6, 2008A
Gender Bias, Tasks & Opportunities Within Indian Families? • Tasks – Do Indian men ‘work’ more or less than Indian women? • Opportunities – Gender bias in Human Capital investment in India? • School attendance • Informal parental instruction • Results: • Urban/Rural differ in work time • No evidence of gender bias in informal instruction
Time Use Data – An Important New Tool for Development Analysis • Poor people do not have money but they do have time • Data on market income & spending cannot reveal behaviour of children or many women or very poor people • Hence often ignored in empirical analysis • But everything we do takes time • Everyone has 24 hours of time, every day • Excluded groups can be examined with time use data
Change in the Market / Non-Market Boundary – central to “Development” • Crucial aspects of the development process largely occur outside the market economy – but do use time • All societies pass skill sets to children • Informal Parental Instruction – the base case • Formalization & Specialization (i.e. Schools) characteristic of development • This paper: Human Capital investment decisions & Gender Bias within households • Also: • Social Capital formation & Basic Goods (Drinking Water – Motiram and Osberg, 2007) • Environmental Degradation & Deforestation
The Time Use Diary Methodology • Standard Labour Force Survey • Retrospective & summative questions asked: • “How many hours do you normally work?” • Rounding, Anchoring, Inconsistency Problems • Large samples possible, low response burden • Time Diary • Interviewer walks respondent through previous random day – in 10-15 minute intervals • Narrative spur to recall • Multiple activities + social context observable • Imposes consistency & completeness • Better measures of working hours? • Labour Intensive - implies small samples (?) • Episodic activities probabilistically observed • E.g. Expectation (dining out | characteristics)
Indian Time Use Survey,1998-99 • Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Orissa, Tamil Nadu • 233 million (geographically representative) • Stratified Random Sampling (NSS). • 1066 rural and 488 urban strata in 52 districts • 18,592 Households. (77,593 persons). • 12,751 rural, 5,841 urban Households • Interview Method. • Male + female interviewer • visit village for 9 days to assess • Time Use Diary of day’s activities for all persons aged 6+ • Normal / Abnormal / Weekly variant – normal used
Gender and Work in India • Definition of ‘work’ is contested • Is ‘caring’ = ‘work’ ? • Housework • Clearly female task – rural & urban • Primary + Secondary + Trade = Commodity Production • Rural – female field work time ≈ 2/3 male • Urban • Average Male work hours ≈ 8.5 • Average Female work hours ≈ 1.5
Housework + Commodity Production Young rural women work most. Urban women often not in labour force
Schooling and Informal Instruction - Gender Bias in Human Capital Formation? • Do Indian families prefer to invest in human capital of boys? • School enrolment & attendance • Lower & more biased to boys in rural areas • Urban – roughly equal boys/girls • HUGE impact of parental illiteracy • Informal instruction by parents • The ‘base case’ for useful productive skills • Historically important for literacy • Scandinavia in 1600s • ITUS • match parent & child reports of informal instruction • simultaneous give/receive – Who gives? Who gets?
School Attendance of Boys & Girls • Urban – roughly similar attendance rates • Rural – systematic female disadvantage • Lagged impact of parental illiteracy?
Gender Favouritism &/or Altruism? Parental Informal Instruction in India • Are boys more likely to get help with their homework and other types of parental instruction (gender favouritism), conditional on some instruction being given (altruism) ?
Probability of Informal Instruction by Household Adults • Probit Model • Gender mix of kids • Not significant • Parental Illiteracy • Strongly negative • urban & rural • Income • Positive – urban • Home owner • Positive • Urban & rural • Caste • Negative – rural • Water-carrying time • Not significant
Probability of Receiving Informal Instruction (for a child) • Probit Model • Prob (given child in boy/girl family received informal instruction) • Gender & age • Not significant • Rural or urban • Parental Illiteracy • Negative always • No evidence for sample selection bias Girls – less learning time than boys in rural areas, but more in urban areas- no less likely to receive parental instruction
Conclusions:(How Urbanization benefits Women - 1) • Gender Bias in Tasks • Housework – clearly gendered labour in India • Total (housework + commodity production) • Younger rural women – housework + field work = a longer workday • Urban women – less work outside home • Available time for home instruction of children
Conclusions:(How Urbanization benefits Women - 2) • Gender Bias in Opportunities • Parental Illiteracy – major negative for both school & informal instruction • No evidence of gender bias in informal instruction • Rural • Less school & less parental instruction • Girls disadvantaged in school attendance • Urban • More school • More parental instruction • More often done by women • Amount & Gender Equity of HK Investment • An under-appreciated benefit of urbanization in India?