IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/9213.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Orphans in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Anne Case
  • Christina Paxson
  • Joseph Ableidinger

Abstract

We examine the impact of orphanage on the living arrangements and school enrollment of children in Sub-Saharan Africa, using data from 19 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted in 10 countries between 1992 and 2000. We find that orphans in Africa on average live in poorer households than non-orphans, and are significantly less likely than non-orphans to be enrolled in school. However, orphans' lower school enrollment is not explained by their poverty: orphans are equally less likely to be enrolled in school relative both to non-orphans as a group and to the non-orphans with whom they live. Consistent with the predictions of Hamilton's Rule, we find that outcomes for orphans depend largely on the degree of relatedness of the orphan to the household head. Children living in households headed by non-parental relatives fare systematically worse than those living with parental heads, and those living in households headed by nonrelatives fare worse still. Much of the gap between the schooling of orphans and non-orphans is explained by the greater tendency of orphans to live with more distant relatives or unrelated caregivers.

Suggested Citation

  • Anne Case & Christina Paxson & Joseph Ableidinger, 2002. "Orphans in Africa," NBER Working Papers 9213, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9213
    Note: AG CH
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w9213.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martha Ainsworth & Kathleen Beegle & Godlike Koda, 2005. "The Impact of Adult Mortality and Parental Deaths on Primary Schooling in North-Western Tanzania," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(3), pages 412-439.
    2. Hunter, Susan S., 1990. "Orphans as a window on the AIDS epidemic in sub-saharan Africa: Initial results and implications of a study in Uganda," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 681-690, January.
    3. Case, Anne & Paxson, Christina, 2001. "Mothers and others: who invests in children's health?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 301-328, May.
    4. Case, Anne & Lin, I-Fen & McLanahan, Sara, 2000. "How Hungry Is the Selfish Gene?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(466), pages 781-804, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Akresh, Richard, 2004. "Adjusting Household Structure: School Enrollment Impacts of Child Fostering in Burkina Faso," IZA Discussion Papers 1379, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Alam, Shamma Adeeb, 2015. "Parental health shocks, child labor and educational outcomes: Evidence from Tanzania," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 161-175.
    3. Spranger, Jennifer L. & Colarelli, Stephen M. & Dimotakis, Nikolaos & Jacob, Annalyn C. & Arvey, Richard D., 2012. "Effects of kin density within family-owned businesses," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 151-162.
    4. Fumagalli, Elena & Pinna Pintor, M & Suhrcke, Marc, 2024. "The impact of health on economic growth: A narrative literature review," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    5. Berger, Lawrence M., 2004. "Income, family structure, and child maltreatment risk," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(8), pages 725-748, August.
    6. Berger, Lawrence M., 2006. "Children living out-of-home: Effects of family and environmental characteristics," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 158-179, February.
    7. Yamano, Takashi & Shimamura, Yasuharu & Sserunkuuma, Dick, 2006. "Living Arrangements and Schooling of Orphaned Children and Adolescents in Uganda," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(4), pages 833-856, July.
    8. Claudia Wood Strow & Brian Kent Strow, 2008. "Evidence That the Presence of a Half‐Sibling Negatively Impacts a Child's Personal Development," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 177-206, April.
    9. Carlos Bozzoli, 2010. "A Lost Generation? Long Term Socioeconomic Outcomes in Orphans," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1069, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    10. Hagen, Jens & Omar Mahmoud, Toman & Trofimenko, Natalia, 2010. "Orphanhood and critical periods in children's human capital formation: Long-run evidence from North-Western Tanzania," Kiel Working Papers 1649, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    11. Hagen, Jens & Omar Mahmoud, Toman & Trofimenko, Natalia, 2010. "Orphanhood and Critical Periods in Children's Human Capital Formation: Long-Run Evidence from North-Western Tanzania," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Hannover 2010 33, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    12. Aramide Kazeem & Leif Jensen, 2017. "Orphan status, school attendance, and relationship to household head in Nigeria," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 36(22), pages 659-690.
    13. Chen, Yuyu & Li, Hongbin, 2009. "Mother's education and child health: Is there a nurturing effect?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 413-426, March.
    14. Anne Case & I-Fen Lin & Sara McLanahan, 2000. "Educational Attainment in Blended Families," NBER Working Papers 7874, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Bozzoli, Carlos G., 2016. "Orphanhood and fertility in young adults: Evidence from South Africa," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 190-200.
    16. de Walque, Damien, 2007. "How does the impact of an HIV/AIDS information campaign vary with educational attainment? Evidence from rural Uganda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 686-714, November.
    17. Erik Plug & Wim Vijverberg, 2003. "Schooling, Family Background, and Adoption: Is It Nature or Is It Nurture?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(3), pages 611-641, June.
    18. Bratti, Massimiliano & Mendola, Mariapia, 2014. "Parental health and child schooling," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 94-108.
    19. Carmen Camacho & Fernanda Estevan, 2023. "Intergeneration Human Capital Transmission and Poverty Traps," PSE Working Papers halshs-04075431, HAL.
    20. Coneus, Katja & Spieß, Christa Katharina, 2008. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Health in Early Childhood," ZEW Discussion Papers 08-073, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9213. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.