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Adjusting Household Structure: School Enrollment Impacts of Child Fostering in Burkina Faso

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Author Info

  • Akresh, Richard

    () (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Abstract

Researchers claim that children growing up away from their biological parents may be at a disadvantage and have lower human capital investment. This paper measures the impact of child fostering on school enrollment and uses household and child fixed effects regressions to address the endogeneity of fostering. Data collection by the author involved tracking and interviewing the sending and receiving household participating in each fostering exchange, allowing a comparison of foster children with their non-fostered biological siblings. Foster children are equally likely as their host siblings to be enrolled after fostering and are 3.6 percent more likely to be enrolled than their biological siblings. Relative to children from nonfostering households, host siblings, biological siblings, and foster children all experience increased enrollment after the fostering exchange, indicating fostering may help insulate poor households from adverse shocks. This Pareto improvement in schooling translates into a long-run improvement in educational and occupational attainment.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 1379.

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Length: 40 pages
Date of creation: Nov 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1379

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Related research

Keywords: human capital investment; child fostering; household structure;

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References

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  1. UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, 1999. "Child Domestic Work," Innocenti Digest inndig99/17, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre.
  2. Anne Case & I-Fen Lin & Sara McLanahan, 1999. "How Hungry is the Selfish Gene?," NBER Working Papers 7401, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. David Bishai & Heena Brahmbhatt & Ron Gray & Godfrey Kigozi & David Serwadda & Nelson Sewankambo & El Daw Suliman & Fred Wabwire-Mangen & Maria Wawer, 2003. "Does biological relatedness affect child survival?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 8(9), pages 261-278, May.
  4. Anne Case & Christina Paxson, 2000. "Mothers and Others: Who Invests in Children’s Health?," Working Papers 277, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Health and Wellbeing..
  5. Yamano, Takashi & Jayne, Thomas S., 2004. "Working-Age Adult Mortality and Primary School Attendance in Rural Kenya," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 55159, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
  6. Anne Case & Christina Paxson & Joseph Ableidinger, 2004. "Orphans in Africa: Parental Death, Poverty and School Enrollment," Working Papers 183, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
  7. Paul Gertler & David I. Levine & Minnie Ames, 2003. "Schooling and Parental Death," HEW 0303001, EconWPA.
  8. Donna K. Ginther & Robert A. Pollak, 2000. "Does family structure affect children's educational outcomes?," Working Paper 2000-13, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
  9. Ainsworth, Martha & Filmer, Deon, 2002. "Poverty, AIDS, and children's schooling - a targeting dilemma," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2885, The World Bank.
  10. Akresh, Richard, 2005. "Risk, Network Quality, and Family Structure: Child Fostering Decisions in Burkina Faso," IZA Discussion Papers 1471, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  11. Marcel Fafchamps & Jackline Wahba, 2004. "Child Labor, Urban Proximity, and Household Composition," Economics Series Working Papers 213, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
  12. Castle, Sarah E., 1995. "Child fostering and children's nutritional outcomes in rural Mali: The role of female status in directing child transfers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 679-693, March.
  13. Anne Case & Christina Paxson & Joseph Ableidinger, 2002. "Orphans in Africa," NBER Working Papers 9213, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  14. Thomas, Duncan & Beegle, Kathleen & Frankenberg, Elizabeth & Sikoki, Bondan & Strauss, John & Teruel, Graciela, 2004. "Education in a crisis," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 53-85, June.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Serra, Renata, 2009. "Child fostering in Africa: When labor and schooling motives may coexist," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 157-170, January.
  2. Eric V. Edmonds, 2007. "Child Labor," NBER Working Papers 12926, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. Beegle, Kathleen & Filmer, Deon & Stokes, Andrew & Tiererova, Lucia, 2010. "Orphanhood and the Living Arrangements of Children in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 1727-1746, December.
  4. Akresh, Richard, 2005. "Risk, Network Quality, and Family Structure: Child Fostering Decisions in Burkina Faso," IZA Discussion Papers 1471, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  5. Marcel Fafchamps & Agnes R. Quisumbing, 2006. "Household Formation and Marriage Markets," Economics Series Working Papers GPRG-WPS-039, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
  6. de Walque, Damien, 2005. "Parental education and children's schooling outcomes : is the effect nature, nurture, or both? evidence from recomposed families in Rwanda," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3483, The World Bank.
  7. Katy Cornwell & Brett Inder & Pushkar Maitra & Anu Rammohan, 2005. "Household Composition and Schooling of Rural South African Children: Sibling Synergy and Migrant Effects," Monash Economics Working Papers 22/05, Monash University, Department of Economics.
  8. Youyou BAENDE BOFOTA, 2013. "The impact of social capital on children educational outcomes: The case of Tanzania," Discussion Papers (IRES - Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales) 2013003, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).

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