Beyond Individual Literacy: The Role of Shared Literacy For Innovation in Guatemala

Green, Sara E.; Rich, Thomas A.; Nesman, Edgar G.

doi:10.17730/humo.44.4.hn5q27065j5137m2

Cited by 21 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Based on the above arguments, some scholars have examined the effect of proximate literacy on outcomes such as the adoption of modern farm practices (Green, Rich, and Nesman 1985), farm productivity (Foster and Rosenzweig 1996), and women's earnings (Basu, Narayan, and Ravaillon 2002). Few studies have accounted for the potential externalities of literacy/education of household members different from the parents in improving children's nutritional and health status.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whose education affects a child’s nutritional status? From parents' to household's education

Burchi¹

2012

DemRes

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BACKGROUNDThe paper engages in the ongoing debate regarding the determinants of child nutrition in developing countries and stresses the potential contribution of the education of household members other than the child's parents. OBJECTIVEThe aim of the paper is threefold: (1) to verify whether there is evidence of the key role of parents' education for children's nutrition; (2) to explore the possible presence of the externalities generated by the literacy of household members different from the child's parents; (3) to test whether there is difference in the influence of these variables on the two indicators of child nutrition, child height-for-age and weight-for-age. METHODSThe determinants of child nutrition were analyzed by estimating a series of econometric models through OLS regressions applied on data from the 2003 DHS survey in Mozambique. By means of seemingly unrelated regression together with formal testing we compared the impact of the covariates on the two outcomes. RESULTSIn line with previous studies, we find that one year of mother's education increases their children's height-for-age and weight-for-age z-scores by nearly 0.025 and 0.015. The presence of another literate household member has a significant, though limited, effect on child height while it has no influence on child weight. Lastly, there is no statistically significant difference in the effect of parents' education on the two indicators while our measure of proximate literacy has a significantly larger impact on child height. CONCLUSIONSThese findings should orient policy-makers toward income-augmenting and educationenhancing policies: the importance of non-parents' literacy opens a further space for investment in education.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whose education affects a child’s nutritional status? From parents' to household's education

Burchi¹

2012

DemRes

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“…With respect to this, note that there may be inter-household externalities to education, which make it interesting for a non-educated person to befriend an educated person. Green et al (1985) and Basu and Foster (1998) argue that the benefits of education are shared within the same household.…”

Section: Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk-Sharing and Endogenous Network Formation

Weerdt¹

2004

Insurance Against Poverty

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In economic literature insurance networks are often treated as exogenous institutions. Frequently, the assumption is made that some clearly identifiable group (e.g. 'the whole village' or 'the extended family') constitutes an insurance network. Still, theory suggests that the formation of insurance links depends on a myriad of factors related to smooth information flows, norms, trust, the ability to punish, discount rates, group size and the potential gains of cooperation (e.g. how correlated income streams are and the amount of other income smoothing strategies available). Recent research has shown that risk is more likely to be shared in small, tightly knit networks, which do not necessarily coincide with a collection of households delineated on the basis of just one factor like kinship or place of residence. However, so far only few empirical attempts have been made at investigating the determinants of network formation. This paper suggests an approach by which one might present stylized facts on endogenous network formation. Applying it to a data set collected in a Haya village in rural Tanzania, we find that kinship, geographical proximity, the number of common friends, clan membership, religious affiliation and wealth strongly determine the formation of risk-sharing networks. Our data suggest that poor households have less dense networks than the rich, making them more vulnerable in the face of idiosyncratic risk.

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“…In analyzing the role of shared literacy for innovation in the context of Guatemala, Green, Rich and Nesman (1985) provide evidence of the existence of literacy externalities.…”

Section: I-introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Family Literacy on the Earnings of Illiterates: Evidence from Senegal

Sarr

2004

SSRN Journal

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Beyond Individual Literacy: The Role of Shared Literacy For Innovation in Guatemala

Cited by 21 publications

References 7 publications

Whose education affects a child’s nutritional status? From parents' to household's education

Whose education affects a child’s nutritional status? From parents' to household's education

Risk-Sharing and Endogenous Network Formation

The Impact of Family Literacy on the Earnings of Illiterates: Evidence from Senegal

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