Child Ability and Household Human Capital Investment Decisions in Burkina Faso

Child Ability and Household Human Capital Investment Decisions in Burkina Faso

Using data they collected in rural Burkina Faso, the authors examine how children's cognitive abilities influence resource constrained households' decisions to invest in their education. This paper uses a direct measure of child ability f...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Akresh, Richard, Bagby, Emilie, de Walque, Damien, Kazianga, Harounan
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	2012
Subjects:	ACCOUNT ACHIEVEMENT ACHIEVEMENT TESTS AVERAGE SCORE BIOLOGICAL CHILDREN BIRTH ORDER CHILD EDUCATION CHILD HEALTH CHILD LABOR CHILD SURVIVAL CHILDREN START SCHOOL CHILDREN UNDER AGE CLASS SIZE COGNITIVE ABILITY COGNITIVE TESTS COURT DESCENT EARLY CHILDHOOD EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION DECISIONS EDUCATION EXPENDITURES EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES ENROLLMENT ENROLLMENT RATE EQUALITY EXTENDED FAMILY FAMILIES FAMILY MEMBERS FAMILY STRUCTURE FEMALE FORMAL SCHOOLING GENDER GENDER DIFFERENCE GENDER GAP GENDERS GIRLS HIGHER ENROLLMENT HOME HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS INEQUALITIES INEQUALITY INTELLIGENCE INTERVENTIONS LOW ENROLLMENT RATES MODELING OLDER CHILDREN ONLY CHILDREN PERCEPTION PERSONALITY PERSONALITY TRAITS PRIMARY SCHOOL PRIMARY SCHOOL AGE PRIMARY SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN PROBLEM SOLVING PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS PSYCHOLOGY REGISTRATION FEES RETURNS TO EDUCATION RISKY BEHAVIORS SCHOOL ATTENDANCE SCHOOL SUPPLIES SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN SCHOOLING SCHOOLS SEX SOCIAL PROTECTION TEACHERS TEXTBOOKS WILL WIVES WORKING MEMORY YOUNG CHILD YOUNG CHILDREN YOUNGER CHILDREN YOUNGER SIBLINGS
Online Access:	http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20100721092322 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3854

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Summary:	Using data they collected in rural Burkina Faso, the authors examine how children's cognitive abilities influence resource constrained households' decisions to invest in their education. This paper uses a direct measure of child ability for all primary school-aged children, regardless of current school enrollment. The analysis explicitly incorporates direct measures of the ability of each child s siblings (both absolute and relative measures) to show how sibling rivalry exerts an impact on the parents decision of whether and how much to invest in their child s education. The findings indicate that children with one standard deviation higher own ability are 16 percent more likely to be currently enrolled, while having a higher ability sibling lowers current enrollment by 16 percent and having two higher ability siblings lowers enrollment by 30 percent. The results are robust to addressing the potential reverse causality of schooling influencing child ability measures and using alternative cognitive tests to measure ability.

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