Empowering Women Through Education: Evidence from Sierra Leone

Abstract

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Women’s Education: Harbinger of Another Spring? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Turkey

“…Parental education is also the most basic component of socioeconomic status, which according to epidemiologists is the key determinant of own and child health (Adler & Newman, 2002). Further, education may affect attitudes towards gender equality empowering women (Mocan & Cannonier, 2012). Because mothers are often the primary caregiver for infants and young children, their empowerment is likely to channel family resources towards mother-and child-wellbeing.…”

Higher Education and Fertility: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Ethiopia

“…In related literature, (Agüero and Bharadwaj 2014) find that education increases knowledge of HIV-preventive behaviours and HIV transmission in Zimbabwe. (Mocan and Cannonier 2012) find that education has a positive impact on women's contraceptive use, getting tested for HIV, and increases women's aversion to intimate partner violence in Sierra Leone. 10 In developed settings, there is mixed evidence on the postponement of marriage and fertility.…”

“…This view is supported by extensive literature that demonstrates a negative association between female education and fertility (Schultz 1993;Cochrane 1979). Indeed, a growing body of causal evidence from sub-Saharan Africa finds that education (at both primary and secondary margins) reduces teenage pregnancies: Kenya (Ozier 2011;Duflo, Dupas, and Kremer 2014), Nigeria (Osili and Long 2008), Sierra Leone (Mocan and Cannonier 2012) and Malawi (Baird, McIntosh, and Özler 2011). 3 While a good part of these studies focused on school girls and thus teen pregnancy, there is some evidence that education also lowers overall fertility; for example in Kenya (Chicoine 2012;Duflo, Dupas, and Kremer 2014) and in Uganda (Keats 2014).…”

Risky health behaviors : evidence for an emerging economy

“…For developing countries, studies have mainly focused on the effects of education on sexual behavior. For example, the effect of schooling on the use and knowledge of contraception for women has been studied by Andalón et al (2014) for Mexico, by Dinçer et al (2014) for Turkey, and by Mocan and Cannonier (2012) for Sierra Leone. In addition, Agüero and Bharadwaj (2013) find that education has a positive effect on having more knowledge about HIV and a negative effect on the number of sexual partners for women in Zimbabwe. Also, de Walque (2006) finds that education is an important predictor of sexual behaviors in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania.…”