Essays on Development Economics
type: CreativeWork
description: 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 no…
abstract: 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 no…
author: Egyir, John
keywords: Literacy, Numeracy, Human capital, Free basic education, Ghana, Social norms, Cooperation, Epidemics, Natural disasters, Sub-Saharan Africa, Social protection, Workfare, Young Lives, Ethiopia
date published: 2024
date modified: 2026-07-24T00:51:57Z
provider: University of Alicante
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Alicante