Bias in parental investments and human capital gaps in India

Abstract

In this paper, I show evidence and produce policy recommendations about the impact of child gender on human capital production and parental investments. I adapt a dynamic model of human capital development, allow for gender-specific cognition and health factors, and estimate production and investment functions separately by genders. Although children produce skills very similarly across genders, parental investments are gender-biased in their elasticity to these skills. At an early age, differences in parental investments come from better returns on characteristics for boys, creating scarring effects and eventual skills gender gaps later on.

Romaine Loubes

PhD candidate in Economics

Romaine Loubes is a doctoral candidate in economics at the Paris School of Economics, working in trade, labor and development.