Complementarity in Demand-side Variables and Educational Participation

Abstract: Decision to participate in education depends on the circumstances individual inherits and on the returns to education she expects as well. If one person from any socio-economically disadvantaged social group inherits poor circumstances measured in terms of family background, then she is having poor opportunities vis-`a-vis her capability set becomes confined. Accordingly, her freedom to choose the best alternative from many is also less, and she fails to expect the potential returns from educational participation. Consequently, a complementary relationship between the circumstances one inherits and the returns to education she expects can be observed. This paper is an attempt to look at this complementarity on the basis of theoretical logic and empirical investigation, which enables us to unearth the origin of inter-group disparity in educational participation, as is existed across the groups defined by taking caste and gender together in Indian society. Furthermore, in the second piece of analysis, we assess the discrimination in the likelihood of educational participation by invoking the method of decomposition of disparity in the likelihood of educational participation applicable in the logistic regression models, which enables us to re-establish the earlier mentioned complementary relationship.