Household Shocks and Education Investment in Madagascar

IZA Discussion Paper No. 8731, Bonn, Germany

28 Pages Posted: 28 Mar 2011 Last revised: 11 Dec 2015

See all articles by Peter Glick

Peter Glick

RAND Corporation

David E. Sahn

Cornell University

Thomas F. Walker

Cornell University; World Bank

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: December 2014

Abstract

This paper measured the extent to which households in Madagascar adjust children’s school attendance in order to cope with exogenous shocks to household income, assets and labour supply. Our analysis was based on a unique data set with 10 years of recall data on school attendance and household shocks. We found that the probability of a child dropping out of school increased significantly when the household experienced an illness, death or asset shock. We proposed a test to distinguish whether the impact of shocks on school attendance could be attributed to credit constraints, labour market rigidities, or a combination of the two. The results of the test suggested that credit constraints, rather than labour market rigidities, explain the inability of households in Madagascar to keep their children in school during times of economic distress.

Keywords: education, development, household shocks, time allocation, labor supply, Madagascar

JEL Classification: I25, J22, D13, E24

Suggested Citation

Glick, Peter and Sahn, David E. and Walker, Thomas F. and Walker, Thomas F., Household Shocks and Education Investment in Madagascar (December 2014). IZA Discussion Paper No. 8731, Bonn, Germany, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1774993 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1774993

Peter Glick

RAND Corporation ( email )

1200 South Hayes Street
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David E. Sahn (Contact Author)

Cornell University ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/des16

Thomas F. Walker

Cornell University ( email )

Department of Economics
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United States

HOME PAGE: http://sites.google.com/a/cornell.edu/thomaswalker/

World Bank ( email )

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Washington, DC 20433
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