Purpose This paper aims to detect gender bias in education expenditure on “students”, who are children and young adults, in a household in the rural and the urban sectors of West Bengal. Outlay equivalent ratios have been calculated using the Engel curve approach, where the budget share function is log quadratic in income, to identify items relating exclusively to education of school/college going students. Heckman’s (1979) two-step procedure is used for estimation to address selection bias The 68th round (July 2011 to June 2012) household level consumption expenditure survey data of the National Sample Survey Organisation have been used for the analysis. Design/methodology/approach Engel curve approach is used to capture parental preference for student’s welfare and to find the existence of male student favouritism in the field of education. In case of exclusive adult goods, the addition of a student will reduce the resource allocated for adult goods leading to negative income effect. If a household favours males over females, then that household is likely to sacrifice more for a male student’s education than that for a female student. To address selection bias, Heckman’s two-step procedure has been used. Findings The authors find that not all education items relate exclusively to students of a household. Expenditure on books is not exclusively for students, whereas other educational items, such as stationary and photocopy charges, tuition fees and private coaching fees, are found to be students’ items only. Transport cost is found to be an adult good. Further, we find evidence of pro male bias in expenditure on educational items, and the extent of gender bias is more in the urban sectors compared to the rural sectors in West Bengal. Originality/value The objective of this paper is to identify the educational items exclusively for “students” and to test the difference in the allocation of resources in education, with respect to these items, between a male student and a female student for both sectors in West Bengal, using the outlay equivalent ratios.

中文翻译：

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家庭教育支出中的性别偏见：以西孟加拉邦为例

目的本文旨在检测西孟加拉邦农村和城市家庭中“学生”（即儿童和年轻人）的教育支出中的性别偏见。支出等价比率是使用恩格尔曲线方法计算的，其中预算份额函数是收入的对数二次方，以确定专门与学校/大学学生教育相关的项目。Heckman (1979) 的两步程序用于估计以解决选择偏差问题 分析使用了国家抽样调查组织的第 68 轮（2011 年 7 月至 2012 年 6 月）家庭层面消费支出调查数据。设计/方法/方法 恩格尔曲线方法用于捕捉家长对学生福利的偏好，并发现教育领域中男生偏爱的存在。在独家成人用品的情况下，增加一个学生会减少分配给成人用品的资源，从而导致负收入效应。如果一个家庭偏爱男性而不是女性，那么该家庭可能会为男性学生的教育做出比女性学生更多的牺牲。为了解决选择偏差，使用了 Heckman 的两步程序。结果 作者发现并非所有教育项目都只与家庭学生有关。书本开支并非专供学生使用，而其他教育项目，例如文具和影印费、学费和私人辅导费，则仅是学生的项目。运输成本被认为是成人用品。此外，我们发现了在教育项目支出中亲男性偏见的证据，与西孟加拉邦的农村部门相比，城市部门的性别偏见程度更大。原创性/价值 本文的目的是确定专门针对“学生”的教育项目，并测试两个部门的男学生和女学生在这些项目方面的教育资源分配差异。西孟加拉邦，使用支出等价比率。