Duration of High School Education and Youth Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Policy Experiment in Ghana

Abekah‐Nkrumah, Gordon; Asuming, Patrick Opoku; Yusif, Hadrat

doi:10.1002/jid.3429

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Using Ghanaian data from the late 1990s, Sackey (2005) finds a positive association between female educational attainment and female participation in the labor market. Abekah‐Nkrumah, Asuming, and Yusif (2019) find some evidence that an exogenous increase in the duration of high school education in Ghana significantly increases the female employment rate, while male employment rates remain unaffected.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female Labor Force Participation in Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Cohort Analysis

Backhaus¹,

Loichinger²

2022

Population & Development Rev

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Female labor force participation rates have been stagnating despite rising female education in sub‐Saharan Africa since the turn of the millennium. Using representative and repeated census data from a heterogeneous sample of 13 sub‐Saharan African countries, this paper analyzes female labor force participation from a demographic perspective. We show that enrollment in education is substantially higher among the most recent female cohorts than among the earlier‐born ones. The higher enrollment mechanically depresses female labor force participation, weakening the relationship between female labor force participation and education. After taking this cohort trend into account, we find a strong and positive association between female labor force participation and female education. We further find a cohort trend toward higher female employment in the nonprimary sector and a positive association between female employment in the nonprimary sector and female education. The higher investments in education by younger female cohorts, together with the demographics of sub‐Saharan African countries, have implications for a potentially arising “demographic dividend”.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female Labor Force Participation in Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Cohort Analysis

Backhaus¹,

Loichinger²

2022

Population & Development Rev

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“…Decent and sustainable work contributes to both physical health and psychological well-being of a person (Blustein, Kenny, Di Fabio, & Guichard, 2019). Researchers note that youth's lack of employment opportunities drags out, makes the transition to adulthood unstable and differentiated by gender and socio-economic status (Abekah-Nkrumah, Asuming, & Yusif, 2019;McClintock, 2020;O'Reilly, https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.12.66 Corresponding Author: Nadezhda Sivrikova Selection and peer-review under The improvement of the position of many millions of young Europeans who cannot find paid work and generally suffer from hardship and social exclusion is a clear priority for youth policy both at the national level of EU member states and for pan-European initiatives (Speckesser, Carreras, & Sala, 2019).…”

Section: Problem Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence Of Gender And Place Of Residence On Education And Employment Accessibility

Popova¹

2020

European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences

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“…Notwithstanding the fundamental role of education in promoting economic development, several challenges remain, especially with respect to the design of educational systems that appropriately respond to the evolving needs of society and consequently improve living standards and transform lives (Abekah‐Nkrumah et al, 2019). In several low‐income countries (LICs) and lower‐middle income countries (LMICs), these challenges have formed the basis for intense public debate among researchers and policy‐makers on essential aspects of educational systems, such as structure, curriculum, financing, and duration.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of an additional year in high school on academic performance at university: Evidence from a policy experiment in Ghana

Abekah‐Nkrumah

Asuming

Yusif

2022

Development Policy Review

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Summary Motivation While education plays a fundamental role in economic development, the design of an appropriate educational structure, including duration of study at various levels, remains an issue of major policy debate in many low‐income countries. In Ghana, the issue of the length of high school education is an issue of ongoing policy debate. Purpose This study estimates the effects of an additional year in senior high school (SHS) on academic performance at university level. Methods and approach Using data from the two largest public universities in Ghana, the article exploits a unique natural experimental variation in the years of secondary education created by policy changes in pre‐university education in Ghana to estimate the impact of an additional year in SHS on a number of academic outcomes at university level. Findings We find that an additional year of SHS education has no impact on academic performance. We did not find any statistically significant difference in the likelihood of completing undergraduate studies in four years, or of graduating with a first‐class degree, or the final grade point average (GPA) of students who attended SHS for four years versus their counterparts who attended SHS for only three years. However, our descriptive analyses show that an additional year in SHS improves chances of students from less‐endowed SHS gaining admission to university, especially to health sciences programmes. Policy implications The nuanced nature of the results suggests the need to further interrogate the policy on SHS duration in Ghana. This may help ensure that the implementation of the policy does not end up making some segment of the student population worse off.

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Duration of High School Education and Youth Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Policy Experiment in Ghana

Cited by 10 publications

References 32 publications

Female Labor Force Participation in Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Cohort Analysis

Female Labor Force Participation in Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Cohort Analysis

Influence Of Gender And Place Of Residence On Education And Employment Accessibility

The impact of an additional year in high school on academic performance at university: Evidence from a policy experiment in Ghana

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