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Structural changes in African households: Female-headed households and Children's educational investments in an imperfect credit market in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Asiedu, Edward
  • Karimu, Amin
  • Iddrisu, Abdul Ganiyu

Abstract

Female headship of households has increased significantly around the world. This paper establishes a link between gender, income, and children's educational investments in an imperfect credit market. We show using a representative household survey from Ghana that, even though there is a positive correlation between income and educational investments, there are expected and unexpected heterogeneities in income and children's educational investments. We find that, whereas income levels for male-headed households with children 6 to 18 years are over 20% higher, female-headed households tend to invest 31% to 38% more on children's education than male-headed households. In imperfect credit markets, higher educational investments could be taking place at the expense of other household outcomes such as food/leisure. Our empirical results show the need for different interventions for different households. We also show how institutional changes that recognize affirmative action can interact with household-level structural changes.

Suggested Citation

  • Asiedu, Edward & Karimu, Amin & Iddrisu, Abdul Ganiyu, 2024. "Structural changes in African households: Female-headed households and Children's educational investments in an imperfect credit market in Africa," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 30-42.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:68:y:2024:i:c:p:30-42
    DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2023.09.008
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Female-headed households; Educational investment; Imperfect credit markets; Structural change in households; Affirmative action; Ghana;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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