In the first chapter, I investigate the effects of free universal education on individuals’ literacy and numeracy skills attainment. This issue is of particular interest because, as empirical evidence shows, differences in basic cognitive skills are frequently the direct consequences of variations in child mortality, labor market earnings and economic growth. With rapidly increasing population, adult illiteracy rates and low parental involvement in children’s education in sub-Saharan Africa, it suffices to find effective ways to improve basic skills in children if progress are to be made in ensuring that related-beneftis accrue to all children. In this paper, I show how a free compulsory universal basic education (FCUBE) policy in Ghana helped improve skills attainment. To do this, I estimate a series of difference-in-differences models of skills production to assess the long-term causal impact of FCUBE using the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS) 2012-2017. Overall, the results of the analysis show that FCUBE increased literacy and numeracy skills. By examining the possibility of heterogenous effects, the study suggests the policy FCUBE had a larger effects for urban and less disadvantaged students, thereby worsening inequality in skills attainment. Additionally, the results reveal that only the lower secondary education, and not primary education, was sufficient to guarantee literacy and numeracy skills attainment. This implies that efforts geared towards giving priority and providing complementary initiatives would seem likely to offset opportunity costs of schooling and reduce these gaps. In the second chapter, we focus on the entire sub-Saharan African countries and examines the persistence of harmful traditional practice. This focus is not entirely independent from the first chapter, given the synergy between education and harmful norms. There is a consensus among economists that increasing human capital in children is an effective way to eradicate harmful norms in sub-Saharan Africa. However, understanding, first, what drives the persistence of such harmful practices is crucial. Following this, we examine, in this paper, the empirical relationship between exposure to disasters and tightness of social norms, focusing on the practice of female genital cutting (FGC). Affecting million girls annually, the practice of FGC is deeply ingrained in the tradition of many communities. Here, we depart from existing literature and build on the notion that whether FGC norm is persistent or not depends on the degree of adherence and sanctions for deviation. In a tightly-knit cultural groups, there is a stronger consensus on the practice and greater disapproval of deviation. This tightness is not random but evolves as adaptive response to adverse shocks. Drawing on occurrences of epidemics and natural disasters, we find that individuals surveyed in the aftermath of a disaster in their region adhere more closely to the normative opinions about FGC in their groups compared to those interviewed before the disaster occurred. By examining variations in early lifetime exposure to disasters across birth cohorts within countries, we find that this effect persists over time. Overall, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that FGC persistence is influenced by the returns to comply with community norms, which are themselves affected by natural disasters. In chapter three, I study the effects of payment modalities of a workfare program on human capital. For the past decades, many developing countries have used workfare programs to mitigate the risk of food insecurity and alleviate poverty. However, transfer packages of these programs are un-indexed, which make particularly cash payment susceptible to food price rises. In this chapter, I use Ethiopia as a case study and examine whether cash, food or cash plus food (mixed) transfer is agile to affect schooling outcomes during periods of dramatic inflation, drawing on empirical evidence from its Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP). Since 2007, Ethiopia has experienced high levels of food price inflation, which have reduced the real purchasing power of many households. In this context high inflation and fixed cash transfer, cash recipients households would be expected to derive smaller welfare gains relative to food and cash plus food (mixed) households. Using a quasi-experimental analysis, the results suggest that, compared with control group, food and cash plus food (mixed) transfers improve enrollment and cognitive outcomes of children. These effects do not accrue to a particular child in the household but benefit all children. However, the study shows that providing households with cash under PSNP had no effect on children's enrollment and cognitive achievement. While this raises questions of fundamental importance of workfare programs, my results are specific to a weak and inflationary economy and suggest index-linking PSNP cash payments to achieve intended outcomes.
Literacy, Numeracy, Human capital, Free basic education, Ghana, Social norms, Cooperation, Epidemics, Natural disasters, Sub-Saharan Africa, Social protection, Workfare, Young Lives, Ethiopia
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