Gender Gaps in Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills: Roles of SES and Gender Attitudes

45 Pages Posted: 18 Feb 2021

See all articles by Justine Herve

Justine Herve

Fordham University

Subha Mani

Fordham University - Fordham College at Rose Hill; Population Studies Center; Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Jere Behrman

University of Pennsylvania - Department of Economics

Arindam Nandi

The Population Council; One Health Trust

Anjana Sankhil Lamkang

One Health Trust

Ramanan Laxminarayan

One Health Trust; Princeton University

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: January 31, 2021

Abstract

Gender gaps in skills exist around the world but differ remarkably among the high and low-and-middle income countries. This paper uses a unique data set with more than 20,000 adolescents in rural India to examine whether socioeconomic status and gender attitudes predict gender gaps in cognitive and noncognitive skills. We find steep socioeconomic and attitude gradients in both cognitive and noncognitive skills, with bigger effect sizes for the socioeconomic status (SES) gradients. Our results suggest that a sizable improvement in gender attitudes would yield important gains for females, but substantial gains would come only from large improvements in household socioeconomic status. Overall, the household socioeconomic and cultural environment is significantly associated with the gender gaps in both cognitive and noncognitive skills.

Keywords: ognitive skills, Noncognitive skills, Gender attitudes, Gender, India, Children

JEL Classification: I21, I25, J13, J16, J24

Suggested Citation

Herve, Justine and Mani, Subha and Behrman, Jere R. and Nandi, Arindam and Sankhil Lamkang, Anjana and Laxminarayan, Ramanan, Gender Gaps in Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills: Roles of SES and Gender Attitudes (January 31, 2021). PIER Working Paper No. 21-007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3788115 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3788115

Justine Herve

Fordham University ( email )

113 West 60th Street
New York, NY 10023
United States

Subha Mani (Contact Author)

Fordham University - Fordham College at Rose Hill ( email )

United States

Population Studies Center ( email )

3718 Locust Walk
School of Arts and Sciences
Philadelphia, PA Pennsylvania 19104-6298
United States

Global Labor Organization (GLO) ( email )

Collogne
Germany

Jere R. Behrman

University of Pennsylvania - Department of Economics ( email )

Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science
133 South 36th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6297
United States
215-898-7704 (Phone)
215-573-2057 (Fax)

Arindam Nandi

The Population Council ( email )

New York, NY
United States

One Health Trust ( email )

5636 Connecticut Avenue NW,
PO Box 42735
Washington DC, DC 20015
United States

Anjana Sankhil Lamkang

One Health Trust ( email )

1616 P St NW
Suite 600
Washington DC, DC 20036
United States

Ramanan Laxminarayan

One Health Trust ( email )

1616 P St NW
Suite 600
Washington DC, DC 20036
United States

Princeton University ( email )

22 Chambers Street
Princeton, NJ 08544-0708
United States

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