TY - JOUR
T1 - Gender gaps in cognitive and noncognitive skills among adolescents in India
AU - Hervé, Justine
AU - Mani, Subha
AU - Behrman, Jere R.
AU - Nandi, Arindam
AU - Lamkang, Anjana Sankhil
AU - Laxminarayan, Ramanan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - Gender gaps in skills exist around the world but differ remarkably among countries. This paper uses a unique data set with more than 20,000 adolescents in rural India to explore gender gaps in cognitive and noncognitive skills. We find that boys have considerable advantages over girls on several indicators of cognitive and noncognitive skills that remains robust to a wide range of controls and specification choices. We also examine the correlates of cognitive and noncognitive outcomes, paying close attention to socioeconomic status (SES) and pro-female gender attitudes. We find a steep positive gradient in SES as well as for pro-female gender attitudes, with stronger associations between the SES gradient and skills. Further, high socioeconomic status and more pro-female gender attitudes are both strongly correlated with reducing the gender gap in cognitive and noncognitive outcomes.
AB - Gender gaps in skills exist around the world but differ remarkably among countries. This paper uses a unique data set with more than 20,000 adolescents in rural India to explore gender gaps in cognitive and noncognitive skills. We find that boys have considerable advantages over girls on several indicators of cognitive and noncognitive skills that remains robust to a wide range of controls and specification choices. We also examine the correlates of cognitive and noncognitive outcomes, paying close attention to socioeconomic status (SES) and pro-female gender attitudes. We find a steep positive gradient in SES as well as for pro-female gender attitudes, with stronger associations between the SES gradient and skills. Further, high socioeconomic status and more pro-female gender attitudes are both strongly correlated with reducing the gender gap in cognitive and noncognitive outcomes.
KW - Children
KW - Cognitive skills
KW - Gender
KW - Gender attitudes
KW - India
KW - Noncognitive skills
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jebo.2021.11.011
DO - 10.1016/j.jebo.2021.11.011
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85120461932
SN - 0167-2681
VL - 193
SP - 66
EP - 97
JO - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
JF - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
ER -