Showing papers by "Pushkar Maitra published in 2008"

Household Expenditure Patterns and Gender Bias: Evidence from Selected Indian States

Abstract: This paper uses Indian data to investigate the existence and nature of gender bias in the intra-household allocation of expenditure. An extended version of the collective household model is estimated where the welfare weights, i.e. the bargaining power of the adult decision-makers, are simultaneously determined with the household's expenditure outcomes. Significant gender bias is detected in some items, most notably in education, and it is found that the bias is considerably stronger in the more economically backward regions of the country. It is also found that the results of the test of gender bias vary sharply between households at different levels of adult literacy. This is particularly true of household spending on education. The gender bias in the case of this item is, generally, more likely to prevail in households with low levels of adult educational attainment than in more literate households. This result is of considerable policy importance given the strong role that education plays in human cap...

A Bivariate Latent Class Correlated Generalized Ordered Probit Model with an Application to Modeling Observed Obesity Levels

Abstract: We extend the discrete data latent class literature by explicitly de…ning a latent variable for class membership as a function of both observables and unobservables. In this way we can allow for the equations de…ning both class membership and observed outcomes to be correlated. We apply this procedure to modelling observed obesity outcomes, which are driven by an underlying ordered probit equation. However, the well-used World Health Organisation boundaries for converting a continuous body mass index (BMI) reading into a weight (obesity) category, may be inappropriate for some individuals at the margin. To allow for this in estimation, we additionally allow the inherent boundary parameters of the OP equation to vary by observed characteristics. We term this new model the BIvariate Generalized Latent CLass Ordered Probit (or BIGCLOP).

School Attainment, Completion, and Economic Development: A Cross-Country Analysis

Abstract: The primary aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between school attainment, school completion, and economic development. In doing so it also examines the effect of other macroeconomic variables on school attainment and completion. Estimation is conducted using a panel dataset of 138 countries. Our results show that income levels, government expenditure on education, and political instability all have significant effects on school completion and attainment. In addition these variables have different effects on male and female schooling. Our results have important policy implications and in particular allow policymakers to identify different instruments to target the problem of non-completion of schooling.

‘Arranged’ Marriage, Co-Residence and Female Schooling: A Model with Evidence from India

Abstract: We model the consequences of parental control over choice of wives for sons, for parental incentives to educate daughters, when the marriage market exhibits competitive dowry payments and altruistic but paternalistic parents benefit from having married sons live with them. By choosing uneducated brides, some parents can prevent costly household partition. Paternalistic self-interest consequently generates low levels of female schooling in the steady state equilibrium. State payments to parents for educating daughters fail to raise female schooling levels. Policies (such as housing subsidies) that promote nuclear families, interventions against early marriages, and state support to couples who marry against parental wishes, are however all likely to improve female schooling. We offer evidence from India consistent with our theoretical analysis.

Re-examining the relationship between income and child health on both sides of the Atlantic

Abstract: There has been a significant amount of literature on the relationship between household income and children’s health, and in particular, whether this relationship is constant as a child ages. That is, are there breaks in the income-health profile according to the age of the child? In this paper we re-examine this relationship but hypothesize that the use of ‘standard’ age ranges (as in the existing literature) may mask ‘true’ changing gradients and breakpoints: there is no reason to suppose that the ‘standard’ age bands used to date reflect the actual ages at which breakpoints occur. Indeed, we allow the data to endogenously determine if, and where, breaks occur. We find positive gradients in both US and English data sets, and breakpoints which coincide with school changeover ages. Our results have significant policy implications in terms of allocation of resources. This papersis written by Mark N. Harrisa, Bruce Hollingsworth, Brett Indera and Pushkar Maitrac.

Public Pension Governance And Asset Allocation

Abstract: Female wages in Bangladesh are significantly lower compared to male wages. This paper seeks to quantify the extent of discrimination in explaining this gender wage gap. We decompose the gender wage differential into a component that can be explained by differences in productive characteristics and a component unexplained by observable productive differences, which are attributed to discrimination. We examine this issue both for rural and urban areas in Bangladesh, using individual level unit record data. Methodologically, we use a number of different approaches to decompose the wage gap between the ???explained??? and the ???unexplained??? components. Our results show that gender wage differentials are considerably larger in urban areas compared to rural areas. The decomposition analysis suggests that a significant portion of this gender wage gap results from discrimination. We also find that failure to correct for sample selection bias leads to a significant under estimation of the gender wage gap in both rural and urban areas. Our results have significant policy implications.

Moral Hazard and Peer Monitoring in a Laboratory Microfinance Experiment

Abstract: Most problems with formal sector credit lending to the poor in developing countries can be attributed to the lack of information and inadequate collateral One common feature of successful credit mechanisms is group-lending, where the loan is advanced to an individual if he/she is a part of a group and members of the borrowing group can monitor each other Since group members have better information about each other compared to lenders, peer monitoring is often less expensive than lender monitoring Theoretically this leads to greater monitoring and greater rates of loan repayments This paper reports the results from a laboratory experiment of group lending in the presence of moral hazard and (costly) peer monitoring We compare peer monitoring treatments when credit is provided to members of the group sequentially and simultaneously, and individual lending with lender monitoring The results depend on the relative cost of monitoring by the peer vis-a-vis the lender In the more typical case where the cost of peer monitoring is lower than the cost of lender monitoring, our results suggest that peer monitoring results in higher loan frequencies, higher monitoring and higher repayment rates compared to lender monitoring In the absence of monitoring cost differences, performance is mostly similar across group and individual lending schemes, although loan frequencies and monitoring rates are sometimes modestly greater with group lending Within group lending, although the dynamic incentives provided by sequential leading generate the greatest equilibrium surplus, simultaneous group leading provides equivalent empirical performance

A Bivariate Latent Class Correlated Generalized Ordered Probit Model with an Application to Modeling Observed Obesity Levels

Abstract: We extend the discrete data latent class literature by explicitly de…ning a latent variable for class membership as a function of both observables and unobservables. In this way we can allow for the equations de…ning both class membership and observed outcomes to be correlated. We apply this procedure to modelling observed obesity outcomes, which are driven by an underlying ordered probit equation. However, the well-used World Health Organisation boundaries for converting a continuous body mass index (BMI) reading into a weight (obesity) category, may be inappropriate for some individuals at the margin. To allow for this in estimation, we additionally allow the inherent boundary parameters of the OP equation to vary by observed characteristics. We term this new model the BIvariate Generalized Latent CLass Ordered Probit (or BIGCLOP).

Health shocks and consumption smoothing in rural households: does microcredit have a role to play?

Abstract: This paper estimates, using a large panel data set from rural Bangladesh, the effects of health shocks on household consumption and how access to microcredit affects households' response to such shocks. Our results suggest that even though in general consumption remains stable in many cases when households are exposed to health shocks, households that have access to microcredit appear to cope (slightly) better. The most important instrument used by households appear be sales of productive assets (livestock) and there is a significant mitigating effect of microcredit: households that have access to microcredit do not need to sell livestock to the extent households that do not have access to microcredit need to, in order to insure consumption against health shocks. The results suggest that microcredit organizations and microcredit per se have an insurance role to play, an aspect that has not been analyzed previously.