Missed Opportunities : The High Cost of Not Educating Girls

Too many girls drop out of school prematurely, especially in low income countries. Low educational attainment for girls has negative consequences not only for them, but also for their children and household, as well as for their community and society. This study documents the potential impacts of ed...

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Main Authors:	Wodon, Quentin, Montenegro, Claudio, Nguyen, Hoa, Onagoruwa, Adenike
Format:	Report
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:	EDUCATION POLICY GENDER SECONDARY EDUCATION GIRLS' EDUCATION INEQUALITY PRODUCTIVITY LIVING STANDARDS CHILD MARRIAGE HEALTH
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29956

id	okr-10986-29956
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-299562021-05-25T09:15:46Z Missed Opportunities : The High Cost of Not Educating Girls Wodon, Quentin Montenegro, Claudio Nguyen, Hoa Onagoruwa, Adenike EDUCATION POLICY GENDER SECONDARY EDUCATION GIRLS' EDUCATION INEQUALITY PRODUCTIVITY LIVING STANDARDS CHILD MARRIAGE HEALTH Too many girls drop out of school prematurely, especially in low income countries. Low educational attainment for girls has negative consequences not only for them, but also for their children and household, as well as for their community and society. This study documents the potential impacts of educational attainment for girls and women in six domains: (1) earnings and standards of living; (2) child marriage and early childbearing; (3) fertility and population growth; (4) health, nutrition, and well-being; (5) agency and decision-making; and (6) social capital and institutions. The results are sobering: the potential economic and social costs of not educating girls are large. Low educational attainment reduces expected earnings in adulthood, and it depresses labor force participation, leading to lower standards of living. When girls drop out of school prematurely, they are much more likely to marry as children, and have their first child before the age of 18 when they may not yet be ready to be wife and mothers. This in turn is associated with higher rates of fertility and population growth, which in low income countries are major impediments for reaping the benefits of the demographic dividend. Low educational attainment is also associated with worse health and nutrition outcomes for women and their children, leading among others to higher under-five mortality and stunting. Girls who drop out of school also suffer in adulthood from a lack of agency and decision-making ability within the household, and in society more generally. They are also less likely to report engaging in altruistic behaviors such as donating to charity, volunteering, or helping others. Finally, when girls and women are better educated, they may be better able to assess the quality of the basic services they rely on and the quality of their country’s institutions and leaders. These negative impacts have large economic costs, leading among others to losses in human capital wealth (future lifetime earnings of the labor force) estimated at $15 trillion to $30 trillion. Educating girls is not only the right thing to do: it is also a smart economic investment. 2018-07-09T19:39:05Z 2018-07-09T19:39:05Z 2018-07-11 Report P151307 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29956 The Cost of Not Educating Girls Notes Series CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Other Education Study Economic & Sector Work
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	EDUCATION POLICY GENDER SECONDARY EDUCATION GIRLS' EDUCATION INEQUALITY PRODUCTIVITY LIVING STANDARDS CHILD MARRIAGE HEALTH
spellingShingle	EDUCATION POLICY GENDER SECONDARY EDUCATION GIRLS' EDUCATION INEQUALITY PRODUCTIVITY LIVING STANDARDS CHILD MARRIAGE HEALTH Wodon, Quentin Montenegro, Claudio Nguyen, Hoa Onagoruwa, Adenike Missed Opportunities : The High Cost of Not Educating Girls
relation	The Cost of Not Educating Girls Notes Series
description	Too many girls drop out of school prematurely, especially in low income countries. Low educational attainment for girls has negative consequences not only for them, but also for their children and household, as well as for their community and society. This study documents the potential impacts of educational attainment for girls and women in six domains: (1) earnings and standards of living; (2) child marriage and early childbearing; (3) fertility and population growth; (4) health, nutrition, and well-being; (5) agency and decision-making; and (6) social capital and institutions. The results are sobering: the potential economic and social costs of not educating girls are large. Low educational attainment reduces expected earnings in adulthood, and it depresses labor force participation, leading to lower standards of living. When girls drop out of school prematurely, they are much more likely to marry as children, and have their first child before the age of 18 when they may not yet be ready to be wife and mothers. This in turn is associated with higher rates of fertility and population growth, which in low income countries are major impediments for reaping the benefits of the demographic dividend. Low educational attainment is also associated with worse health and nutrition outcomes for women and their children, leading among others to higher under-five mortality and stunting. Girls who drop out of school also suffer in adulthood from a lack of agency and decision-making ability within the household, and in society more generally. They are also less likely to report engaging in altruistic behaviors such as donating to charity, volunteering, or helping others. Finally, when girls and women are better educated, they may be better able to assess the quality of the basic services they rely on and the quality of their country’s institutions and leaders. These negative impacts have large economic costs, leading among others to losses in human capital wealth (future lifetime earnings of the labor force) estimated at $15 trillion to $30 trillion. Educating girls is not only the right thing to do: it is also a smart economic investment.
format	Report
author	Wodon, Quentin Montenegro, Claudio Nguyen, Hoa Onagoruwa, Adenike
author_facet	Wodon, Quentin Montenegro, Claudio Nguyen, Hoa Onagoruwa, Adenike
author_sort	Wodon, Quentin
title	Missed Opportunities : The High Cost of Not Educating Girls
title_short	Missed Opportunities : The High Cost of Not Educating Girls
title_full	Missed Opportunities : The High Cost of Not Educating Girls
title_fullStr	Missed Opportunities : The High Cost of Not Educating Girls
title_full_unstemmed	Missed Opportunities : The High Cost of Not Educating Girls
title_sort	missed opportunities : the high cost of not educating girls
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2018
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29956
_version_	1764470930899206144

Missed Opportunities : The High Cost of Not Educating Girls

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