Historical Inequality and Intergenerational Educational Mobility: The Dynamics of Change in Rural Punjab

Ali Cheema () and Muhammad Farooq Naseer ()
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Ali Cheema: Associate Professor of Economics, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives, and a Fellow, Center of Economic Research in Pakistan.
Muhammad Farooq Naseer: Assistant Professor of Economics, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan

Lahore Journal of Economics, 2013, vol. 18, issue Special Edition, 211-231

Abstract: We analyze educational attainment over three generations in rural Punjab, Pakistan, to determine if the fruits of post-independence development have translated into comparable rates of educational and social opportunities for all strata in the village economy. We show that the differences in class status institutionalized at the time of colonial village settlement lead to a sustained divergence in the rate of intergenerational educational mobility, with limited mobility for nonproprietary and marginalized groups compared to proprietary groups. Inter-class differences in the rate of mobility are higher in proprietary landed estates where the colonial state had concentrated land rights and governance in the hands of landowners compared to crown estates that had a more egalitarian arrangement of land rights and governance. We find that the divergence in inter-class mobility is worrying, so much so that the current generation of marginalized households appears to have fallen a generation behind in terms of educational attainment, even though it resides in the same villages as the proprietary households.

Keywords: Inequality; education; development; Pakistan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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