What Did You Do All Day? Maternal Education and Child Outcomes
Female education levels are very low in many developing countries. Does maternal education have a causal impact on children's educational outcomes even at these very low levels of education? By combining a nationwide census of schools in Pakis...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| 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_20091130161421 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4336 |
| Summary: | Female education levels are very low in
many developing countries. Does maternal education have a
causal impact on children's educational outcomes even
at these very low levels of education? By combining a
nationwide census of schools in Pakistan with household
data, the authors use the availability of girls'
schools in the mother's birth village as an instrument
for maternal schooling to address this issue. Since public
schools in Pakistan are segregated by gender, the instrument
affects only maternal education rather than the education
levels of both mothers and fathers. The analysis finds that
children of mothers with some education spend 75 minutes
more on educational activities at home compared with
children whose mothers report no education at all. Mothers
with some education also spend more time helping their
children with school work; the effect is stronger (an extra
40 minutes per day) in families where the mother is likely
the primary care-giver. Finally, test scores for children
whose mothers have some education are higher in English,
Urdu (the vernacular), and mathematics by 0.24-0.35 standard
deviations. There is no relationship between maternal
education and mother s time spent on paid work or housework
- a posited channel through which education affects
bargaining power within the household. And there is no
relationship between maternal education and the
mother's role in educational decisions or in the
provision of other child-specific goods, such as
expenditures on pocket money, uniforms, and tuition. The
data therefore suggest that at these very low levels of
education, maternal education does not substantially affect
a mother's bargaining power within the household.
Instead, maternal education could directly increase the
mother's productivity or affect her preferences toward
children s education in a context where her bargaining power
is low. |
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