Child quantity-quality trade-off revisited: Evidence from India
Abstract: This paper explores causal impacts of having siblings on children's education and health outcomes (i.e., child quality). Child education is measured by years of schooling attainments, school attendance, delay in schooling, age-standardised schooling index. Child-health is measured by z-scores for height, weight and body mass index. The study uses instrumental variable approach where number of children is instrumented by twin births and same gender composition of first two children. The study finds the existence of negative impacts of having siblings on school-aged children’s educational attainments and health outcomes. In addition, I use propensity score matching technique to examine the robustness of the results.
Effect of family size on women's labour market outcomes: Evidence from India
Abstract: This paper explores causal impacts of fertility on women's labour supply outcomes, namely participation in the labour market and hours of labour supply. The study uses instrumental variable approach where fertility is instrumented using twin births and first born girl. The study finds that fertility has negative impacts on women’s labour market participation and hours of labour supply and this is particularly the case when children are at young age (i.e., below the age of six).
Impact of caste certificate on standard of living: Evidence from Indian urban slums
Abstract: This paper investigates a causal impact of the possession of a caste certificate on the standard of living of an economically disadvantaged urban slum-household (i.e., eligible households). The eligible households comprise of Schedule Caste (SC), Schedule Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Class (OBC) households. The standard of living of these eligible households is measured by constructing a multidimensional attainment index using a counting approach. The study uses a uniquely collected dataset comprising of 1,338 households residing in the slums of Mumbai (a city in the state of Maharashtra) and Kolkata (a city in the state of West Bengal). This survey is a part of “NOPOOR” project and is funded by the European Commission. An instrumental variable approach is used to instrument the possession of a caste certificate by the available information on whether the household is residing within its state of origin (i.e., whether the household members are natives to a state of residence). The empirical findings reveal that a caste certificate has positive impact on the standard of living of an eligible household compared to similar households that do not possess one. This effect is predominantly relevant for the sample of OBC households. Such a positive impact of a caste certificate on the standard of living of an eligible household is mediated through government job positions held, potentially through a reservation channel, by at least a member in the household.