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Heterogeneous Effects of Women's Schooling on Fertility, Literacy and Work: Evidence from Burundi's Free Primary Education Policy

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  • Wild, Frederik
  • Stadelmann, David

Abstract

This article investigates women's returns to schooling by exploiting Burundi's free primary education policy (FPE) of 2005 as a natural experiment. Credibly exogenous variation in education is identified through a fuzzy regression discontinuity design (RDD). Our results show that while educational attainment was positively influenced by Burundi's FPE for women situated at all wealth levels, the relevant downstream effects of schooling - measured by fertility, literacy and employment - reveal heterogeneous treatment effects by wealth. Poorer women profit in terms of higher literacy, employment as well as reduced fertility through policy induced education, while there are almost no effects of additional education for non-poor women. Our findings help in evaluating the generalisability of the nexus between women's education and fertility as well as associated factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Wild, Frederik & Stadelmann, David, 2020. "Heterogeneous Effects of Women's Schooling on Fertility, Literacy and Work: Evidence from Burundi's Free Primary Education Policy," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224607, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc20:224607
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Female Education; Fertility; Sub-Saharan Africa; Regression Discontinuity Design;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

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