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Less School (Costs), More (Female) Education? Lessons from Egypt Reducing Years of Compulsory Schooling

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  • Marie, Olivier
  • Elsayed, Ahmed

Abstract

Exploiting a unique policy reform in Egypt that reduced the number of years of compulsory schooling, we show that it unexpectedly increased education attainment. This impact is almost entirely driven by girls from more disadvantaged households staying in school longer. Treated women later experienced important positive improvements in labor market opportunity and marriage quality, as measured by bride price received and household bargaining power. We reject changes in school quality as a driving mechanism and attribute the increased investment in girl’s human capitcal to adjustments by credit-constrained families when school costs dropped combined with strongly non-linear returns to female education.

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  • Marie, Olivier & Elsayed, Ahmed, 2021. "Less School (Costs), More (Female) Education? Lessons from Egypt Reducing Years of Compulsory Schooling," CEPR Discussion Papers 16568, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:16568
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    Cited by:

    1. Ahmed Elsayed & Soiliou Daw Namoro & Rania Roushdy, 2022. "Empowering women in conservative settings: evidence from an intervention in rural Egypt," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 1287-1322, December.
    2. Stanislav Avdeev, 2020. "Zero Returns To Higher Education: Evidence From A Natural Experiment," HSE Working papers WP BRP 236/EC/2020, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    3. Elsayed, Ahmed & Shirshikova, Alina, 2023. "The women-empowering effect of higher education," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    School costs; Education investment; Gender bias; Female labor market; Marriage; Bride price; Egypt;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

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