ECONOMIC GROWTH CENTER
                                
                        YALE UNIVERSITY
                                
                                
                        P.O. Box 208269
                      27 Hillhouse Avenue
               New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8269
                                
                                
                                
                                
                CENTER DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 794
                                
                                
                                
                                
       MEASURING THE DETERMINANTS OF SCHOOL COMPLETION IN
       PAKISTAN: ANALYSIS OF CENSORING AND SELECTION BIAS
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                         Jessica Holmes
                                
                        Yale University
                                
                                
                                
                                
                          January 1999

     




 Note: Center Discussion Papers are preliminary materials circulated to stimulate discussions and
       critical comments.





  Measuring the Determinants of School Completion in Pakistan:
                                
            Analysis of Censoring and Selection Bias
                                
                                
                                
                         Jessica Holmes
                    Department of Economics
                        Yale University
                                
                                
                                
                                
                            Abstract

This paper explores the demand for child schooling in Pakistan, using the Pakistan Integrated
Household Survey (1991).  There have been few such studies for Pakistan, a country with relatively
low enrollment rates and education levels, high illiteracy, and large disparity between male and female
education.  Additionally, this study focuses on two potential sources of bias in the estimation of the
demand for schooling.  First, studies which do not distinguish between currently enrolled children and
those who completed their schooling subject their estimates to a form of censoring bias, Second,
studies which exclude children who have left the household from their samples may introduce sample
selection bias if the decisions to leave home and to attend school are related.  This study finds
evidence of both "censoring" and "sample selection" bias in the demand for child schooling in
Pakistan.



JEL classification: I2, C24


_____________________________________________________________
I would like to thank T. Paul Schultz, Michael Boozer, Jennifer Hunt, Joel Waldfogel, John Maluccio,
Benoit Perron, Sofronis Clerides and participants in the Labor and Population Workshop for helpful
guidance and numerous suggestions.  Bill Greene has provided enormous help by adapting LIMDEP
to suit the empirical needs of this dissertation and giving much technical support.  All remaining errors
are my own.  I also gratefully acknowledge the World Bank and Guilherme Sedlacek for providing
the data and the Rockefeller Foundation for financial support.