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Ancestral Ways of Life and Human Capital Formation in Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • David Wuepper

    (Agricultural Economics and Policy Group, ETH Zurich)

  • Hannes Lang

    (Governance in International Agribusiness, TU Munich)

  • Emmanuel Benjamin

    (Agriculture and Food, TU Munich)

Abstract

There is a rich literature on the importance of historical agriculture as long-term shaper of culture, institutions, and economic development. How much this changes over time, however, we understand much less. In Kenya, we compare the educational attainment between individuals with nomadic and non-nomadic ancestors over time and find a large and quite persistent gap in all periods that we examine (2006, 2009, 2013, 2016) as well as in different age cohorts. We find an especially large gap for individuals with nomadic ancestors who live in rural areas and who are women. In urban areas, we also do find evidence for some, recent improvement, but only when we restrict the comparison group to individuals from other non-English and non-Swahili speaking ethnicities.

Suggested Citation

  • David Wuepper & Hannes Lang & Emmanuel Benjamin, 2020. "Ancestral Ways of Life and Human Capital Formation in Kenya," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 18(4), pages 571-584, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joecin:v:18:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s10888-020-09450-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10888-020-09450-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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