Abstract:
Is the poor human capital investment by rural Indian families primarily a supply side or a demand side
issue? We examine school attendance and total human capital investment time (time in school plus
travel time plus in-home instructional time) using the Indian Time Use Survey of 1998-1999 and the 7th
All India School Education Survey (AISES). Probit and sample selection bias regression estimates
indicate that the influence of supply side factors (school quality and availability) is large relative to the
impact of household characteristics (e.g. low income). We discuss the policy implications.
