IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v111y2018icp161-180.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hidden human capital: Self-efficacy, aspirations and achievements of adolescent and young women in India

Author

Listed:
  • Roy, Sanchari
  • Morton, Matthew
  • Bhattacharya, Shrayana

Abstract

This paper studies the role of non-cognitive skills like self-efficacy in explaining the education and employment aspirations and outcomes of adolescent and young women in Jharkhand, India. We find that self-efficacy is an important correlate of the educational and employment aspirations of these women, and ultimately, of their actual attainments. This suggests that such “hidden” forms of human capital may serve as critical targets for interventions aimed at altering young women’s educational and economic trajectories. We also examine factors that correlate with young women’s level of self-efficacy, and find that an “enabling” and supportive family and community environment appears to be important.

Suggested Citation

  • Roy, Sanchari & Morton, Matthew & Bhattacharya, Shrayana, 2018. "Hidden human capital: Self-efficacy, aspirations and achievements of adolescent and young women in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 161-180.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:111:y:2018:i:c:p:161-180
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.07.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X18302316
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.07.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nehru, Vikram & Swanson, Eric & Dubey, Ashutosh, 1995. "A new database on human capital stock in developing and industrial countries: Sources, methodology, and results," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 379-401, April.
    2. Angus Deaton, 2003. "Health, Inequality, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 113-158, March.
    3. Christopher Blattman & Julian C. Jamison & Margaret Sheridan, 2017. "Reducing Crime and Violence: Experimental Evidence from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Liberia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(4), pages 1165-1206, April.
    4. Esther Duflo, 2001. "Schooling and Labor Market Consequences of School Construction in Indonesia: Evidence from an Unusual Policy Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 795-813, September.
    5. Solava Ibrahim & Sabina Alkire, 2007. "Agency and Empowerment: A Proposal for Internationally Comparable Indicators," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(4), pages 379-403.
    6. Elise Klein, 2014. "PsychologicaL Agency: Evidence from the Urban Fringe of Bamako," OPHI Working Papers 69, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    7. Alkire, Sabina, 2002. "Dimensions of Human Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 181-205, February.
    8. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman, 2008. "Formulating, Identifying and Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(4).
    9. Camelia M. Kuhnen & Brian T. Melzer, 2018. "Noncognitive Abilities and Financial Delinquency: The Role of Self‐Efficacy in Avoiding Financial Distress," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(6), pages 2837-2869, December.
    10. Klein, Elise, 2014. "Psychological Agency: Evidence from the Urban Fringe of Bamako," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 642-653.
    11. James J. Heckman & Jora Stixrud & Sergio Urzua, 2006. "The Effects of Cognitive and Noncognitive Abilities on Labor Market Outcomes and Social Behavior," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 411-482, July.
    12. Erik Lindqvist & Roine Vestman, 2011. "The Labor Market Returns to Cognitive and Noncognitive Ability: Evidence from the Swedish Enlistment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 101-128, January.
    13. Imbens, Guido W & Angrist, Joshua D, 1994. "Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(2), pages 467-475, March.
    14. Sabina Alkire, 2005. "Subjective Quantitative Studies of Human Agency," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 217-260, October.
    15. Rajeev Darolia & Bruce Wydick, 2011. "The Economics of Parenting, Self‐esteem and Academic Performance: Theory and a Test," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 78(310), pages 215-239, April.
    16. Fares, Jean & Montenegro, Claudio E. & Orazem, Peter F., 2006. "How are youth faring in the labor market ? Evidence from around the world," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4071, The World Bank.
    17. Agnes R. Quisumbing & John A. Maluccio, 2003. "Resources at Marriage and Intrahousehold Allocation: Evidence from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and South Africa," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 65(3), pages 283-327, July.
    18. Patricio S. Dalton & Sayantan Ghosal & Anandi Mani, 2016. "Poverty and Aspirations Failure," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(590), pages 165-188, February.
    19. Baldacci, Emanuele & Clements, Benedict & Gupta, Sanjeev & Cui, Qiang, 2008. "Social Spending, Human Capital, and Growth in Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1317-1341, August.
    20. Hoddinott, John & Haddad, Lawrence, 1995. "Does Female Income Share Influence Household Expenditures? Evidence from Cote d'Ivoire," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 57(1), pages 77-96, February.
    21. Edward Miguel & Michael Kremer, 2004. "Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(1), pages 159-217, January.
    22. David Wuepper & Travis J. Lybbert, 2017. "Perceived Self-Efficacy, Poverty, and Economic Development," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 383-404, October.
    23. Alsop, Ruth & Heinsohn, Nina, 2005. "Measuring empowerment in practice: structuring analysis and framing indicators," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3510, The World Bank.
    24. Dercon, Stefan & Orkin, Kate & Bernard, Tanguy & Taffesse, Alemayehu, 2014. "The Future in Mind: Aspirations and Forward-Looking Behaviour in Rural Ethiopia," CEPR Discussion Papers 10224, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    25. Schultz, T. Paul, 1995. "Human Capital and Economic Development," 1994 Conference, August 22-29, 1994, Harare, Zimbabwe 183410, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    26. Krishnan, Pramila & Krutikova, Sofya, 2013. "Non-cognitive skill formation in poor neighbourhoods of urban India," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 68-85.
    27. Naila Kabeer, 1999. "Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurement of Women's Empowerment," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(3), pages 435-464, July.
    28. David Wuepper & Travis J. Lybbert, 2017. "Perceived Self-Efficacy, Poverty, and Economic Development," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 383-404, October.
    29. Ruth Alsop & Mette Bertelsen & Jeremy Holland, 2006. "Empowerment in Practice : From Analysis to Implementation," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6980.
    30. Joshua D. Angrist & Victor Lavy, 1999. "Using Maimonides' Rule to Estimate the Effect of Class Size on Scholastic Achievement," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(2), pages 533-575.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jamelia Harris, 2023. "Opting out of public sector employment: Gender and occupational aspirations among university graduates in Sierra Leone," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(5), pages 897-914, July.
    2. Sujit Raghunathrao Jagadale & Jayne Krisjanous, 2023. "Exploring unheard voices: Best practices in interviewing women prosumers in Indian subsistence contexts," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 36-68, January.
    3. Bazyli Czyżewski & Agnieszka Poczta-Wajda & Piotr Kułyk & Jolanta Drozdz, 2023. "Small farm as sustainable nexus of contracts: understanding the role of human capital and policy based on evidence from Poland," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(9), pages 10239-10260, September.
    4. Mitchell, Mark & Favara, Marta & Porter, Catherine & Sanchez, Alan, 2020. "Human Capital Development: New Evidence on the Production of Socio-Emotional Skills," IZA Discussion Papers 13804, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Bazyli Czyżewski & Agnieszka Sapa & Piotr Kułyk, 2021. "Human Capital and Eco-Contractual Governance in Small Farms in Poland: Simultaneous Confirmatory Factor Analysis with Ordinal Variables," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, January.
    6. Fiona Carmichael & Christian K. Darko & Nicholas Vasilakos, 2022. "Well‐being and employment of young people in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam: Is work enough?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 40(2), March.
    7. Botea, Ioana & Donald, Aletheia & Rouanet, Léa, 2021. "In it to win it? Self-esteem and income-earning among couples," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 488-506.
    8. Avdeenko, Alexandra & Bohne, Albrecht & Frölich, Markus, 2019. "Linking savings behavior, confidence and individual feedback: A field experiment in Ethiopia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 122-151.
    9. Priyanka, Sadia, 2020. "Do female politicians matter for female labor market outcomes? Evidence from state legislative elections in India," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    10. Haroon, Maryiam & Said, Farah & Zafar, Mahniya, 2022. "Fostering non-cognitive skills and academic performance: Experimental evidence from women’s-only colleges in Pakistan," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    11. Utteeyo Dasgupta & Subha Mani & Smriti Sharma & Saurabh Singhal, 2023. "Social Identity, Behavior, and Personality: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(4), pages 472-489, April.
    12. Seemanti Ghosh, 2020. "Development of locus of control: A comparison between adolescents from middle- and lower-socioeconomic class," Working Papers 2020_23, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    13. Utteeyo Dasgupta & Subha Mani & Smriti Sharma & Saurabh Singhal, 2020. "Social Identity, Behavior, and Personality," Working Papers 308280016, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ross, Phillip H. & Glewwe, Paul & Prudencio, Daniel & Wydick, Bruce, 2021. "Developing educational and vocational aspirations through international child sponsorship: Evidence from Kenya, Indonesia, and Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    2. Alkire, Sabina & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Peterman, Amber & Quisumbing, Agnes & Seymour, Greg & Vaz, Ana, 2013. "The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 71-91.
    3. Ilaria Schnyder von Wartensee & Elizabeth Hlabse & Gabriella Berloffa & Giuseppe Folloni, 2019. "The Role of Personal Identity in Human Development," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(3), pages 461-479, July.
    4. Sanchari Roy & Matthew Morton & Shryana Bhattacharya, 2016. "Hidden Human Capital: Psychological Empowerment & Adolescent Girls’ Aspirations in India," Working Paper Series 09716, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    5. Ross, Phillip H., 2019. "Occupation aspirations, education investment, and cognitive outcomes: Evidence from Indian adolescents," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Steinert, Janina Isabel & Cluver, Lucie Dale & Meinck, Franziska & Doubt, Jenny & Vollmer, Sebastian, 2018. "Household economic strengthening through financial and psychosocial programming: Evidence from a field experiment in South Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 443-466.
    7. Ramzi Mabsout, 2011. "Capability and Health Functioning in Ethiopian Households," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 101(3), pages 359-389, May.
    8. Maiorano, Diego & Shrimankar, Dishil & Thapar-Björkert, Suruchi & Blomkvist, Hans, 2021. "Measuring empowerment: Choices, values and norms," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    9. Seymour, Greg & Peterman, Amber, 2018. "Context and measurement: An analysis of the relationship between intrahousehold decision making and autonomy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 97-112.
    10. Martín Leites & Xavier Ramos, 2022. "The Effect of Relative Income Concerns on Life Satisfaction: Relative Deprivation and Loss Aversion," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(7), pages 3485-3515, October.
    11. Klein, Elise, 2014. "Psychological Agency: Evidence from the Urban Fringe of Bamako," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 642-653.
    12. Sanchari Roy & Matthew Morton & Shryana Bhattacharya, 2016. "Hidden Human Capital: Psychological Empowerment & Adolescent Girls’ Aspirations in India," Working Paper Series 9716, Department of Economics, University of Sussex.
    13. Schultz, T. Paul, 2010. "Population and Health Policies," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4785-4881, Elsevier.
    14. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Nathaniel Hilger & Emmanuel Saez & Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach & Danny Yagan, 2011. "How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings? Evidence from Project Star," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(4), pages 1593-1660.
    15. Nikolov, Plamen & Jimi, Nusrat & Chang, Jerray, 2020. "The Importance of Cognitive Domains and the Returns to Schooling in South Africa: Evidence from Two Labor Surveys," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    16. Dalton,Patricio S. & Ruschenpohler,Julius & Zia,Bilal Husnain, 2018. "Determinants and dynamics of business aspirations : evidence from small-scale entrepreneurs in an emerging market," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8400, The World Bank.
    17. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    18. González-Jiménez, Víctor, 2022. "Social status and motivated beliefs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    19. Maria Ana Lugo & Esfandiar Maasoumi, 2008. "Multidimensional Poverty Measures from an Information Theory Perspective," Working Papers 85, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    20. Vidya Diwakar & Amanda Lenhardt & Emmanuel Tumusiime & Joseph Simbaya & Arthur Moonga, 2023. "The Relationship Between Psychosocial Interventions and Child Wellbeing in Zambia," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(1), pages 395-420, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Self-efficacy; Aspirations; Women; Employment; Education; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • Z00 - Other Special Topics - - General - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:111:y:2018:i:c:p:161-180. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.