Parental Aspirations for Children's Education: Is There a "Girl Effect"? Experimental Evidence from Rural Ethiopia
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 109,
May 2019
(pp. 127-32)
Abstract
We report on an experiment with poor rural households in Ethiopia, which aimed to boost aspirations for a better future through exposure to documentaries featuring local male and female role models. We explore effects on parents' educational aspirations and investment in children's education. At baseline, educational aspirations are high but biased against girls. At a six-month follow-up, the intervention increased parents' aspirations for their children's education and increased enrollment, time spent in school, and schooling expenditures. There was no catching up of girls relative to boys. Results are consistent with broader local social norms that value education but disfavor women.Citation
Bernard, Tanguy, Stefan Dercon, Kate Orkin, and Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse. 2019. "Parental Aspirations for Children's Education: Is There a "Girl Effect"? Experimental Evidence from Rural Ethiopia." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 109: 127-32. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20191072Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D63 Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
- I21 Analysis of Education
- I24 Education and Inequality
- I25 Education and Economic Development
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration