Gains from female education in rural Bangladesh: A multidimensional approach

Despite progress toward gender equality in education in Bangladesh, its female labor force participation (FLFP) rate has been stagnant relative to that of men, especially in marginal rural areas. To identify the overall benefit of schooling investment in women in rural Bangladesh, we examine the impact of female educational attainment on not only FLFP but also gains from marriage and household welfare. Applying a fuzzy regression discontinuity design where plausibly exogenous variation in school enrollment is created by the nationwide stipend program for women, we find moderate impacts of female education on FLFP, while female with higher education are more likely to marry more educated husbands who generate higher household income, particularly from non-farm activities. The results also show the significantly positive impacts of women’s education on sanitation control and children’s health. These findings indicate that female schooling enhances women’s role and well-being through marriage and household activities rather than their labor market activities.     

Schooling of girls and boys in a West African country: the effects of parental education,income, and household structure

This study investigates gender differences in the determinants of several schooling indicators in Conakry, Guinea, using ordered and binary probit models incorporating household-level random effects. Such indicators include grade attainment, current enrollment, and withdrawal from school. The survey, which was conducted on 1725 households, contains detailed information on a wide range of socioeconomic factors such as education, labor force activity and earnings, assets and health. Results indicate that increases in household income lead to greater investments in the schooling of girls than in the schooling of boys. Meanwhile, improvements in the education of fathers raise the schooling of both sons and daughters, while the education of mothers only has a significant impact on the schooling of daughters. These estimates show differences in maternal and paternal preferences for schooling daughters relative to sons. Therefore, the importance of gender, parental education, and household income and composition affect the education of children. However, findings also show that education for girls is unnecessary since they only need to work at home. Moreover, policies that raise household incomes will increase gender equity in schooling, which will also depend on whether and how these policies change the opportunity costs of girls and boys and the labor market returns to female and male schooling.     

Why Brazil fell behind in college education?

Brazil fell behind in higher education attainment for the cohorts born in the 1950s and 1960s. We jointly model educational choices, labor force participation and wages, and compute the average, marginal and internal rate of returns to schooling after controlling for changes in ability composition at all levels of education. We find very high returns to college, which indicate that the disappointing trend in higher education could reflect binding credit constraints, psychic costs or uncertainty about future earnings gains from schooling.     

Education and the marginalisation of girls in post-GATT Mauritius

This paper describes the history and geography of Mauritius and its elitist colonial educational system; presents a literature review of female education, development, and position in the labor market; discusses the economy in the post-GATT era and wasted potential; and calls for a new educational order. Mauritius has a multiplicity of cultures and a complex cultural, socioeconomic, and political context. French colonialism is characterized as limiting expansion of education on the island. Education was expanded under British colonial rule; mass education was promoted, but not much changed in the nature and role of schooling. The elites of today are those descendants of diverse ethnic people who managed to become educated. Mauritians are marginalized today due to the lack of implementation of its official policy of equal opportunity. About 6% of primary school children leave the system illiterate. About 20% are functionally illiterate. Many leave primary schools without passing the Certificate of Primary Education tests. A 1994 survey indicated that female labor force participation rates were higher among persons with lower levels of education. Women have a subordinate role in the labor market due to a long history of a subordinate role, gender inequity, a large concentration of women in the clothing sector of the Export Processing Zone, and gender segregation in managerial and professional occupations and advancement. Some associate development with marginalization of women. Teachers and textbooks reinforce gender roles. Mauritius needs to retain students, gender sensitize the educational system, and eliminate job discrimination.     

School-enrollment rates and trends,gender, and fertility: a cross-national analysis

The analysis of the association between educational status and fertility decline is performed 1) by examining the rates of enrollment in primary and secondary schools by gender and 2) by assessing the effects of the change/spread in rates of enrollment between 1965 and 1986. 59 countries were involved in the cross-sectional analysis. Variables included the logged crude birth rate, total enrollment rates, enrollment rates by gender, male-female ratios, the growth rate for each educational measure by world system status (core, peripheral, and semiperipheral countries), control variables (economic growth, family planning, multinational corporate penetration, women's labor force participation, child mortality rate, social insurance programs), and enrollment changes. The evidence reflects a strong association between levels of enrollment of girls in primary and secondary school and gender inequality and fertility declines. Caldwell's theory of the flows of wealth and the spread of education effect was found to have little support. High levels of female enrollment and low levels of gender inequality in access to schooling are associated with fertility declines. Caldwell's theory is that this indicates a decline in patriarchy, change in women's familial roles and a shift to a more egalitarian family structure. Increases in female education mean higher status and more power for women.     

Higher education and fertility: Evidence from reforms in Greece

This paper examines the impact of higher education on women’s fertility decisions. To address the endogeneity of non-compulsory education participation, I focus on an increase in the supply of higher education and a concurrent schooling reform that jointly expanded higher education opportunities in Greece in year 2000. Drawing data from the 10% sample of the 2011 Population Census, I use the exogenous variation introduced by the first grade enrollment age cutoff to apply a Regression Discontinuity Design comparing educational attainment and fertility for women that were just, and just not exposed to the reforms. The probability of giving birth before age 30 decreases by around 20 percentage points for women who completed higher education because they were exposed to the reforms. Career outcomes for employed women with higher education improve, while fertility decreases at ages following graduation, suggesting that the result is primarily driven by the increasing opportunity cost of children.     

Do school entry laws affect educational attainment and labor market outcomes?

Age based school entry laws force parents and educators to consider an important tradeoff: though students who are the youngest in their school cohort typically have poorer academic performance, on average, they have slightly higher educational attainment. In this paper we document that for a large cohort of California and Texas natives the school entry laws increased educational attainment of students who enter school early, but also lowered their academic performance while in school. However, we find no evidence that the age at which children enter school effects job market outcomes, such as wages or the probability of employment. This suggests that the net effect on adult labor market outcomes of the increased educational attainment and poorer academic performance is close to zero.     

Differentiation and work: inequality in degree attainment in U.S. higher education

While much stratification research has focused on understanding the patterns and consequences of differentiation, previous studies have not considered similarly important variation in students’ trajectories through higher education, and particularly their participation in the labor market. Results from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth of 1997 (NLSY97) indicate that degree completion in a differentiated system of higher education is related to students’ employment patterns. Students who begin their educational journeys in community colleges as well as students from less advantaged family backgrounds are more likely to dedicate longer hours to paid employment, which has negative consequences for degree attainment. Employment patterns contribute to gaps in degree completion among students from different family backgrounds and to a lesser extent to inequality in degree completion between students beginning postsecondary education in community colleges vs. 4-year institutions. A more complex set of patterns is revealed when examining the relationship between employment, family background, and degree attainment across different institutional types and educational credentials. These findings highlight the importance of developing a more comprehensive understanding of inequality in educational attainment by considering the relationship between differentiation and work.     

Drug use,the transition from school to work and occupational achievement in the United States

To determine the effects of drug use on entry into the labor force and subsequent socioeconomic achievement, we estimated duration models of the time elapsed since first leaving school to the first fulltime civilian job and jobs held at ages 24–25 and 28–29. The duration models show inconsistent drug effects: women who use illicit drugs other than marijuana delay entry into the labor force while men who use alcohol daily experience a somewhat more rapid entry. Blacks and those with a lower level of educational attainment enter the labor force more slowly than non-blacks and those with higher educational levels. The more important determinants of occupational outcomes at entry and later points in the work career are the human capital variables, i.e. educational attainment and experience. Duration of time since leaving school to first job has a statistically significant and negative impact on earnings, which increases over time for men but not for women. Being black is consistently associated with higher earnings among women. Holding constant other determinants of socioeconomic achievement, such as family background factors, marital status, race, and participation in different activities and roles during high school, effects of drug use among men and women and across earnings and prestige of the job are weak and inconsistent. The only statistically significant effect is the positive impact of marijuana use on males’ earnings at age 29. The findings lead us to conclude that drug use has only minor impact on occupational achievement in early adulthood.     

Learning Resources

This article presents labor‐force tends that show certain geographic areas, such as Kentucky, Sweden, and Japan, experiencing very limited labor‐force growth and a heavier reliance on older workers because of declining younger‐age populations. The authors discuss these declines and other factors such as participation rates of women and older people in the labor force, retirement incentives of income‐support programs, and educational and training needs. Based on the data and trends presented, this article advocates for research and policy options to be studied in relation to this information if we are to respond effectively to an aging labor force.     

L’accès des filles à l’enseignement supérieur au Burkina Faso: choix parentaux,parcours d’étudiantes et défis

Girls’ access to higher education in Burkina Faso: parental choices, student trajectories, challenges – What motivates parents from less well-off backgrounds to invest in extended schooling for their daughters? What drives the girls from these backgrounds to stay in the school system up to university level? Many studies on Burkina Faso’s education system show that there are still disparities between girls and boys at all levels, with the gap widening as the level of studies gets higher. Under these conditions, the prospect of pursuing higher education is less certain for girls from less well-off families. Yet, girls from these backgrounds are relatively present at the University of Ouagadougou. Based on a qualitative survey of students and their parents, this article highlights the social rationale determining the specific educational trajectories of these girls. The level of schooling of the older siblings, the girl’s positon in relation to her siblings, or concern for equity are factors in some parents’ decision to enrol their daughters in school. Parents invoke several reasons to justify sending their daughters to university, one of the most frequent being the argument that their daughters faithfully help them in return. As for the students, they mention various motivations to explain why they have persisted with their schooling and university studies, often in difficult circumstances, notably the desire to help their parents. The article also highlights the importance of family support as a factor in girls attending school and university, as well as in the pursuit and success of their studies.     

Ohne Schulabschluss in die Berufsausbildung: Ergebnisse einer Längsschnittuntersuchung

Young people who leave school without obtaining a secondary school certificate bear an increased risk of not completing vocational training and being excluded from stable employment in their working life. However, some of these young people do achieve access to vocational training and employment. Based on a longitudinal study of school-to-work transitions of a representative sample of graduates from Praxisklassen in Bavaria (a course especially designed for potential school drop outs at the lower secondary school – Hauptschule), patterns of transition that lead into vocational training and employment are compared with patterns that end up in exclusion from education, training and employment. Determinants of successful transitions, which can be targeted by pedagogical measures, are inter alia: participation in internships in enterprises during the last year of schooling, help and support received from parents and professional career guidance. However, besides these influential factors, regional labor market conditions are important for a successful school-to-work transition. This close link to the labor market ultimately limits the effects of educational interventions.     

Compulsory schooling,education, depression and memory: New evidence from SHARELIFE

In this paper we provide new evidence on the causal effect of education on adult depression and cognition. We use SHARE data and schooling reforms in several European countries as instruments for educational attainment. We find that an extra year of education has a large and significant protective effect on mental health; the probability of suffering depression decreases by 6.5 percentage points. We find a large and significant protective effect on cognition as measured by word recall. We also explore whether heterogeneity and selection play a part in the large discrepancy between OLS and IV (LATE) estimates of the effect of education on depression and cognition. Using the data available in SHARELIFE on early life conditions of the respondents such as the individuals’ socioeconomic status, health, and performance at school, we identify subgroups particularly affected by the reforms and with high marginal health returns to education.     

Social policy reforms and daughters’ schooling in Vietnam

Vietnam’s social policy reforms in the transition to a market economy included the introduction of fees for primary and secondary school in the late 1980s. Using data from the Viet Nam Living Standards Surveys, this paper examines how the increasing costs of education to households have impacted on school enrolment between 1993 and 1998, giving special attention to daughters’ schooling. Data shows that, despite rising costs for education, enrolment rates have increased. A multivariate analysis indicates that, compared to sons, daughters’ school enrolment at ages 11–18 yr is much more responsive to household characteristics. Among poor families, daughters’ schooling is particularly vulnerable.     

Intergenerational effects of college graduation on career sex atypicality in women

This study was designed to determine whether parents' possession of a baccalaureate degree influenced the sex atypicality of the careers attained by their college-educated daughters. The intergenerational effect of mother's or father's possession of a baccalaureate degree was examined for members of two racial groups who were included among respondents to the 1971 and 1980 CIRP surveys. The sample was limited to females who attended a single four-year college or university as first-time matriculants in 1971 and were also full-time participants in the labor force in 1980. A final sample of 1,596 respondents (1,269 whites and 327 blacks) met all selection criteria. A 15-variable block recursive model was estimated to study vocational behavior processes in the subjects as related to five categories of variables: (1) student background characteristics; (2) precollege variables; (3) institutional characteristics of the college attended; (4) measures of the collegiate experience; and (5) outcome measures (educational attainment, sex atypicality of career). Results substantiated the indirect influence of father's and mother's college education on the women's educational attainment and career sex atypicality 9 years after matriculation in college. Intergroup differences in effects suggested differences in family and vocational processes.     

Learning at every age? Life cycle dynamics of adult education in Europe

Adult learning is seen as a key factor for enhancing employment, innovation and growth. The aim of this paper is to understand the points in the life cycle at which adult learning takes place and whether it leads to reaching a medium or high level of educational attainment. We perform a synthetic panel analysis of adult learning for cohorts aged 25–64 in 27 European countries using the European Union Labour Force Survey. We find that investment across the life cycle by cohorts older than 25 still occurs: participation in education and training as well as educational attainment increase observably across all cohorts. We also find that the decline with age slows down, or is even reversed for older cohorts, for both participation in education and educational attainment. Finally, we can identify cross-country differences in approach. In Nordic countries, adult learning is achieved primarily through participation in education and training without adding to formal educational attainment. In central Europe, adult learning occurs primarily in the form of increasing educational attainment. In Ireland and the UK, a combination of both approaches to adult learning is observable.     

Do brothers affect their sisters’ chances to graduate? An analysis of sibling sex composition effects on graduation from a university or a <Emphasis Type="Italic">Fachhochschule</Emphasis> in Germany

In a recent paper on gender inequality in higher education Buchman and DiPrete (2006) assume that the decrease in the gender gap in college completion in the US can partly be explained by changes in the allocation of familial resources in favour of women. However, they do not test this hypothesis empirically. In this paper I examine the effects of sibling sex composition on the graduation of women in more detail by analysing data from the German Life History Study. I assume that resources are the key issue to explaining the effects of sibling configuration on educational attainment. Tertiary education is a good case for testing sex composition effects due to the unequal distribution of resources between and within families, because the direct costs and opportunity costs of higher education are relatively high compared to those of earlier educational decisions. Accordingly, I expect that working class daughters are most likely to be disadvantaged if they are raised with brothers. The empirical results show that in fact, not the presence of a brother as such hinders educational attainment of sisters, but older brothers have a negative influence on their sisters chances of graduation. In accordance to the hypothesis, this effect is stronger for university graduation than for graduation at Fachhochschule. For social class differences in sibling effects it turns out that working class daughters are particularly less likely to graduate compared to service class daughters if there are older brothers in the family.     

Sign language users' education and employment levels: keeping pace with changes in the general Australian population?

This article draws on data from the 2006 Australian census to explore the education and employment outcomes of sign languages users living in Victoria, Australia, and to compare them with outcomes reported in the general population. Census data have the advantage of sampling the entire population on the one night, avoiding problems of population comparability and sampling errors that may affect survey-based research. The analysis shows that sign language users are approaching parity with the general population on some measures of educational attainment, but there remains a gap in employment levels and particularly income. Sign language users aged 25-44 years show higher attainment than those in the 45-64 age group, suggesting that educational reforms in the last 30 years are having a positive impact on both education and employment levels. However, younger sign language users are still struggling to keep pace with improvements in certain employment outcomes that are seen in the general population.     

Changes in the returns to education and college quality

This paper estimates changes in the effects of educational attainment and college quality on three cohorts of students observed during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Consistent with most of the prior literature, I find that educational attainment and college quality raise earnings, and the magnitudes of these effects have increased over time. The new contributions of this paper are the following: (1) changes in these effects are disaggregated by sex, race, and parent's SES, and include estimates of effects on earnings, labor force participation, family formation, and civic participation; (2) evidence of larger increases in the effects of education on earnings and labor force participation for men, Blacks, and Hispanics; (3) declining effects of educational attainment on voter registration; and (4) increasing effects of college quality on delaying marriage and childbearing, particularly for males.     

Through a gender lens: explaining North‐Eastern Thai women’s participation in adult literacy education

This ethnographic study employs a gender perspective to understand the motivations of eight women literacy learners participating in a village‐based functional literacy programme in rural North‐eastern Thailand. Field research took place over six months of periodic residence in a North‐eastern Thai village, and involved participant observation, individual interviews and informal focus groups. An analysis of the women’s reproductive, productive and community roles, and their practical and strategic gender needs (Moser ) is used to frame findings on the women’s participation in the literacy programme. In brief, although the women valued educational programmes that reduced the burden of their reproductive labour, offered income‐generating opportunities in their productive roles and supported their leadership roles in the community, the village literacy programme had limited effect in addressing these practical gender needs. However, because a patriarchal ideology and Buddhist institutions had denied the women access to schooling as children, they now saw the literacy programme as both a symbolic return to school and a collective women’s space to advocate for more desirable adult educational programmes. In these ways, the programme addressed their strategic gender needs. The study argues that a gender lens is critical in explaining women’s participation in literacy programmes and in designing literacy education for development.