Séminaire des doctorants

Gender Differences in Education: Are girls neglected in Pakistani Society?

Discutants : Francesca Marchetta et Yoro Diallo

Résumé

Female education is prerequisite for the rapid growth in the developing countries, however, its influential role has undermined due to outdated social norms, cultural barriers and gender preferences. The primary objective of this study is to examine the factors determining gender differences in education with individual and socioeconomic characteristics of the households by using Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurements (PSLM) survey data from 2005 to 2016. It also investigates the extent of household income that can affect relative position of females in Pakistani society with acquisition of education. This study uses two empirical specifications according to the measurements for education attainment. I use ordered logit model for categorical variable of education achievement that consist of primary, secondary, tertiary and no level of education, and logit model regression for binary variable of current enrolment. In addition, the study deals causal relationship between education attainment and income per capita of the household by using Two Stage Residual Inclusion (2SRI) method. The household’s per capita income provides significant and positive effect on education investment. Findings reveals that education returns are higher with the transition of primary to secondary level in comparison of secondary to tertiary level of education for boys and girls both. Meanwhile, marginal effects indicate that education completion rate is lower for girls as compared to boys and results remain consistent even after controlling for endogeneity. Additionally, the current enrolment is adequately higher for boys who have more probability to maximize household per capita income than girls have. The estimates are consistent with the alternative specification of ordered probit model regression and other explanatory variables. The findings are robust with regional and provincial heterogeneity. The study recommends government interventions to reduce gender gap by investing in females’ human capital to uplift their socio-economic position in a society to meet economic challenges of the country.

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