IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2026-17.html

Does government spending on education increase intergenerational education mobility?: The case of Free Compulsory Basic Education in Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Nicola Branson
  • Emma Whitelaw

Abstract

This paper examines whether Ghana's education reforms have increased intergenerational education mobility. Using the newly constructed Ghana Education and Labour Series—a harmonized dataset combining multiple rounds of the Ghana Living Standards Survey—we track intergenerational education mobility trends for cohorts born between 1958 and 1992.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicola Branson & Emma Whitelaw, 2026. "Does government spending on education increase intergenerational education mobility?: The case of Free Compulsory Basic Education in Ghana," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2026-17, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2026-17
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2026-17-does-government-spending-education-increase-intergenerational-education-mobility.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hertz, Tom, 2008. "A group-specific measure of intergenerational persistence," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 100(3), pages 415-417, September.
    2. Kehinde F. Ajayi, 2024. "School Choice and Educational Mobility: Lessons from Secondary School Applications in Ghana," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 59(4), pages 1207-1243.
    3. Stenzel, Alicia G. & Osei Kwadwo, Victor & Vincent, Rose C., 2024. "Free secondary education policy and education attainment," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    4. Paul Novosad & Charlie Rafkin & Sam Asher, 2022. "Mortality Change among Less Educated Americans," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 1-34, October.
    5. Razzu, Giovanni & Wambile, Ayago, 2025. "Three-generation educational mobility in six African countries: The role of grandparents," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    6. Giovanni Razzu & Ayago Wambile, 2022. "Four Decades of Intergenerational Educational Mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(5), pages 931-950, May.
    7. van der Weide, Roy & Lakner, Christoph & Mahler, Daniel Gerszon & Narayan, Ambar & Gupta, Rakesh, 2024. "Intergenerational mobility around the world: A new database," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    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. Razzu, Giovanni & Wambile, Ayago, 2025. "Three-generation educational mobility in six African countries: The role of grandparents," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    2. Ricard Grebol & Margarita Machelett & Jan Stuhler & Ernesto Villanueva, 2025. "Assortative Mating, Inequality, and Rising Educational Mobility in Spain," Papers 2512.22848, arXiv.org.
    3. Matías Ciaschi & Mariana Marchionni & Guido Neidhöfer, 2026. "Intergenerational mobility in Latin America: the multiple facets of social status and the role of mothers," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 39(1), pages 1-28, March.
    4. Bhashkar Mazumder, 2014. "Black–White Differences in Intergenerational Economic Mobility in the U.S," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue Q I.
    5. Piraino, Patrizio, 2015. "Intergenerational Earnings Mobility and Equality of Opportunity in South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 396-405.
    6. Elisa Jácome & Ilyana Kuziemko & Suresh Naidu, 2021. "Mobility for All: Representative Intergenerational Mobility Estimates over the 20th Century," Working Papers 302, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    7. Atamanov, AZIZ & Cuevas, Facundo & Lebow, Jeremy, 2024. "People in Africa face an unlevel playing field for building their productive capacity," MPRA Paper 124047, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Bhashkar Mazumder, 2018. "Intergenerational Mobility in the United States: What We Have Learned from the PSID," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 680(1), pages 213-234, November.
    9. Ferreira, Francisco H. G. & Brunori, Paolo & Neidhofer, Guido & Salas-Rojo, Pedro & Sirugue, Louis, 2025. "Inherited Inequality in Latin America," IZA Discussion Papers 18254, IZA Network @ LISER.
    10. Muñoz, Ercio, 2021. "The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in Latin America and the Caribbean," SocArXiv mc78h, Center for Open Science.
    11. Timothy M. Smeeding, 2018. "The PSID in Research and Policy," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 680(1), pages 29-47, November.
    12. Margo, Robert A., 2016. "Obama, Katrina, and the Persistence of Racial Inequality," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 76(2), pages 301-341, June.
    13. Viviline Ngeno, 2025. "A Cohort Analysis on the Impact of free Tuition Secondary Education Policy on Student Survival Rates in Public Secondary Schools in Kericho County, Kenya," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(8), pages 5483-5504, August.
    14. Liu, Kelly J. & Stutzer, Alois, 2024. "The Role of Social Mobility Experience in Zero-Sum Beliefs," IZA Discussion Papers 17407, IZA Network @ LISER.
    15. David Powell, 2025. "Understanding the demographics of the opioid overdose death crisis," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(3), pages 1-31, September.
    16. Florencia Torche & Alejandro Corvalan, 2018. "Estimating Intergenerational Mobility With Grouped Data," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 47(4), pages 787-811, November.
    17. S. Nageeb Ali & Ran I. Shorrer, 2025. "Hedging When Applying: Simultaneous Search with Correlation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 115(2), pages 571-598, February.
    18. Gabriel Lara Ibarra & Cabrera,Maynor & Otavio Canozzi Conceicao & Ricardo Campante Cardoso Vale, 2023. "Poverty and Inequality Implications of Fiscal Policies : The Case of Brazil," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10495, The World Bank.
    19. Bavafa, Hessam & Mukherjee, Anita & Welch, Tyler Q., 2023. "Inequality in the golden years: Wealth gradients in disability-free and work-free longevity in the United States," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    20. Nizam MelikÅŸah Demirtas & Orhan Torul, 2021. "Intergenerational Income Mobility in Turkey Abstract:," Working Papers 2021/05, Bogazici University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:unu:wpaper:wp-2026-17. 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: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.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.