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Informal Institutions and Intergenerational Contracts: Evidence from Schooling and Remittances in Rural Tanzania

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Author Info
David Dreyer Lassen (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen)
Helene Bie Lilleør (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen)

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Abstract

This paper carries out a theoretical and empirical investigation of the role of informal institutions in facilitating intergenerational contracts governing investments in schooling and payments of pensions in the form of remittances. We show, using detailed household level data from rural Tanzania, that informal institutions of social control, rooted in tribal affiliations, determine both the household's investment in schooling and the probability that it receives remittances from migrants. This is consistent with a framework in which households' expected returns in the form of remittances, which is determined partly by the prospects of social control over migrants, influence current investments in schooling.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Applied Microeconometrics in its series CAM Working Papers with number 2008-03.

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Length: 28 pages
Date of creation: Aug 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:kud:kuieca:2008_03

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Related research
Keywords: intergenerational contract; social compact; schooling; human capital; traditions; ethnicity; ethnic diversity; social capital; Tanzania; Africa;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
O15 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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