The Effect of Household Wealth on Educational Attainment: Demographic and Health Survey Evidence

Abstract

No AccessPolicy Research Working Papers25 Jun 2013The Effect of Household Wealth on Educational Attainment: Demographic and Health Survey EvidenceAuthors/Editors: Deon FilmerDeon Filmerhttps://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-1980SectionsAboutPDF (0.2 MB) ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In Abstract:September 1998 While household wealth is strongly related to educational attainment of children nearly everywhere, the magnitude and pattern of the effect of wealth differs widely. The gap in attainment of children of the poor and rich ranges from only one or two years in some countries to nine or ten years in others. This attainment gap is the result of different patterns of enrollment and dropout: while in South America low attainment among the poor is almost entirely due to children who enroll then drop out early, in West Africa and South Asia many poor children never enroll. Using household survey data from 44 Demographic and Health Surveys in 35 countries, Filmer and Pritchett document different patterns in the enrollment and attainment of children from rich and poor households. They find that: ° Enrollment profiles of the poor differ across countries but fall into distinctive regional patterns. In some areas (including much of South America) the poor reach nearly universal enrollment in first grade but then drop out in droves. In others (including much of South Asia and West Africa), the poor never enroll. Both patterns lead to low attainment. ° There are enormous differences across countries in the wealth gap-the difference in enrollment and educational attainment between the rich and the poor. In some countries the difference between the rich and poor in the median number of years of school completed is only a year or two; in others the gap is as great as nine or ten years. ° The attainment profiles can be used as diagnostic tools to examine issues in the educational system, including the extent to which enrollment is low because of the physical unavailability of schools. Filmer and Pritchett overcome the lack of data on income and consumption expenditures in the surveys by constructing a proxy for long-run household wealth, using survey information on assets and using the statistical technique of principal components. This paper-a product of Poverty and Human Resources, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to inform education policy. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project Educational Enrollment and Dropout (RPO 682-11). Deon Filmer may be contacted at [email protected] Previous bookNext book FiguresReferencesRecommendedDetailsCited ByAn Asset Index Proposal for Households in Mexico Applying the Mixed Principal Components Analysis Methodology29 September 2021Agency, Income Inequality, and Subjective Well-Being*Physical attractiveness and women's HIV risk in rural MalawiDemographic Research, Vol.378 August 2017Child Labor in Africa and Asia: Household and Context Determinants of Hours Worked in Paid Labor by Young Children in 16 Low-Income CountriesThe European Journal of Development Research, Vol.27, No.117 July 2014A Canonical Analysis on the Relationship between Financial Risk Tolerance and Household Education Investment in Sri LankaInternational Journal Of Innovation And Economic Development, Vol.1, No.41 January 2015ReferencesCognitive Skills Gaps in India: Can (Late) Nutrition Ameliorate Them?SSRN Electronic JournalEduPad — A tablet based educational system for improving adult literacy in rural IndiaWealthiest is Not Always Healthiest: What Explains Differences in Child Mortality in West Africa?SSRN Electronic JournalDeterminants of Participation in Higher Education and Choice of DisciplinesSouth Asia Economic Journal, Vol.10, No.25 March 2010The effect of household wealth on the adoption of improved maize varieties in ZambiaFood Policy, Vol.33, No.6Measuring Inequities in Secondary School Attendance: The Probability of Attending Secondary School for Primary School Graduates in NicaraguaThe Long Walk to School: International Education Goals in Historical PerspectiveSSRN Electronic JournalDevelopment of a scale to measure economic status of students in rural vietnamAsia Pacific Education Review, Vol.8, No.2Asset-Based Approaches to Poverty Reduction in a Globalized ContextSSRN Electronic JournalA Stability and Social Investment Facility for High Debt CountriesSSRN Electronic JournalRedistribution Through Education and Other Mechanisms Under Capital-Market Imperfections and Uncertainty: A Welfare Effect AnalysisLabour, Vol.19, No.2Modelling determinants of child mortality and poverty in the ComorosHealth & Place, Vol.10, No.1The Long Walk to School: International Education Goals in Historical PerspectiveSSRN Electronic JournalCritical Choices at a Critical Age: Youth Emancipation Paths and School Attainment in Latin AmericaSSRN Electronic JournalMultiple Politico-Economic Regimes, Inequality and GrowthSSRN Electronic JournalSibling Correlations and Social Mobility in Latin AmericaSSRN Electronic Journal View Published: November 1999 Copyright & Permissions Related RegionsAfricaLatin America & CaribbeanRelated CountriesIndonesiaNigeriaUgandaBrazilBoliviaRelated TopicsRural DevelopmentEducationTransportPoverty Reduction KeywordsATTAINMENT PROFILECHILDRENCHILDREN START SCHOOLEDUCATIONEDUCATION VARIABLESEDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENTENROLLMENTENROLLMENT RATESFIRST GRADEGROUPSPRIMARY COMPLETIONPRIMARY GRADEPRIMARY SCHOOLPRIMARY YEARSSCHOOL SYSTEMSCHOOLINGSCHOOLSUNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATIONUNIVERSAL ENROLLMENTVALUES Loading ...

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