Sending children to school: rural livelihoods and parental investment in education in northern Tanzania

Hedges, Sophie; Mulder, Monique Borgerhoff; James, Susan; Lawson, David W.

doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.10.001

Cited by 46 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The lowest earners and the lowest decile in asset poverty are the groups that underestimate educational returns. This finding complements the findings by Hedges et al (2016) who show that in Tanzania, overall wealthier families are more likely to invest in education.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 88%

What factors drive individual misperceptions of the returns to schooling in Tanzania? Some lessons for education policy

Nikolov

Jimi

2018

Applied Economics

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Evidence on educational returns and the factors that determine the demand for schooling in developing countries is extremely scarce. Building on previous studies that show individuals underestimating the returns to schooling, we use two surveys from Tanzania to estimate both the actual and perceived schooling returns and subsequently examine what factors drive individual misperceptions regarding actual returns. Using ordinary least squares and instrumental variable methods, we find that each additional year of schooling in Tanzania increases earnings, on average, by 9 to 11 percent. We find that on average individuals underestimate returns to schooling by 74 to 79 percent and three factors are associated with these mis-perceptions: income, asset poverty and educational attainment. Shedding light on what factors relate to individual beliefs about educational returns can inform policy on how to structure effective interventions in order to correct individual misperceptions.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 88%

What factors drive individual misperceptions of the returns to schooling in Tanzania? Some lessons for education policy

Nikolov

Jimi

2018

Applied Economics

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“…While the overall picture of a disadvantage for later-borns we observe for Mexico is consistent with the general evidence for economically developed countries (de Haan et al 2014), we find that, ceteris paribus, birth order effects are more pronounced at higher absolute as well as relative standards of living. This is in line with evolutionary models of biased parental investment, which postulate that parental attitudes towards risk might strengthen the advantage of earlier-borns in wealthier households (Gibson and Sear 2010;Gibson and Lawson 2011;Hedges et al 2016). Because higher levels of standards of living imply greater reliability of returns to parental investment and lower vulnerability to risks over which parents have little control (e.g., neighborhood violence), it becomes relatively safer to put "more eggs in one basket," and this benefits earlier-borns over later-borns.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…These competing drives are typically resolved in favor of earlier-borns, as formalized in the model developed by Jeon (2008). A number of recent contributions argue that this preferential pattern in favor of earlier-borns is stronger in wealthier households (Gibson and Sear 2010;Gibson and Lawson 2011;Hedges et al 2016). This is because at higher levels of standards of living, there is greater reliability of returns to parental investment and lower vulnerability to the risks over which parents have little control (e.g., susceptibility to disease, neighborhood violence, etc.…”

Section: Absolute Standard Of Livingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The importance of being earliest: birth order and educational outcomes along the socioeconomic ladder in Mexico

2020

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We study the effect of birth order on educational outcomes in Mexico using 2 million observations from the 2010 Census. We find that the effect of birth order is negative, and a variety of endogeneity and robustness checks suggest a causal interpretation of this finding. We then examine whether these effects vary across households' economic status, and we find significant heterogeneity across absolute as well as relative standards of living, operationalized as household wealth and relative deprivation. Finally, we find that firstborns' advantage is amplified when they are male, and in particular when other siblings are female.

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“…The share is somewhat lower among people with less education and fewer assets (though only the wealth differences are statistically significant); however, fully 30% of respondents without education and one-third of those from households in the poorest asset quintile felt that they would be able to adapt. The results could, in part, be explained by increasing levels of livelihood diversity and flexibility with regards to sources of income and livelihood among Tanzanians (Hedges et al 2016). In future work, it would be advisable to probe understandings of the adaptive capacity-related question, including whether people associate it with longer term change rather than short-term coping strategies, and the sorts of livelihood strategies people feel they can adopt.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subjective measures of household resilience to climate variability and change: insights from a nationally representative survey of Tanzania

Jones¹,

Samman²,

Vinck³

2018

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Promoting household resilience to climate extremes has emerged as a key development priority. Yet tracking and evaluating resilience at this level remains a critical challenge. Most quantitative approaches rely on objective indicators and assessment frameworks, but these are not fully satisfactory. Much of the difficulty arises from a combination of conceptual ambiguities, challenges in selecting appropriate indicators, and in measuring the many intangible aspects that contribute to household resilience. More recently, subjective measures of resilience have been advocated in helping to overcome some of the limitations of traditional objective characterizations. However, few large-scale studies of quantitative subjective approaches to resilience measurement have been conducted.In this study, we address this gap by exploring perceived levels of household resilience to climate extremes in Tanzania and the utility of standardized subjective methods for its assessment. A nationally representative cross-sectional survey involving 1294 individuals was carried out by mobile phone in June 2015 among randomly selected adult respondents aged 18 and above. Factors that are most associated with resilience-related capacities are having had advance knowledge of a previous flood, and to a lesser extent, believing flooding to be a serious community problem. Somewhat surprisingly, though a small number of weak relationships are apparent, most socio-demographic variables do not exhibit statistically significant differences with regards to perceived resilience-related capacities. These findings may challenge traditional assumptions about what factors characterize household resilience, offering a motivation for studying both subjective and objective perspectives, and understanding better their relationship to one another. If further validated, subjective measures may offer potential as both a complement and alternative to traditional objective methods of resilience measurement, each with their own merits and limitations.

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Sending children to school: rural livelihoods and parental investment in education in northern Tanzania

Cited by 46 publications

References 41 publications

What factors drive individual misperceptions of the returns to schooling in Tanzania? Some lessons for education policy

What factors drive individual misperceptions of the returns to schooling in Tanzania? Some lessons for education policy

The importance of being earliest: birth order and educational outcomes along the socioeconomic ladder in Mexico

Subjective measures of household resilience to climate variability and change: insights from a nationally representative survey of Tanzania

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