Boahen E.A.
2 Publications in AERD
Author Publications
Export PDFDuration of Pre-university Education and Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Quasi-experiment in Ghana
By Boahen E.A.
This paper provides new evidence on the effect of shortening the duration of pre-university education on long-term labour market outcomes in Ghana, expl`oiting the education reform of 1987 as a natural experiment. Our results indicate that the drastic cut in the duration of pre-tertiary education from 17 to 12 years improved the labour market success of treated cohorts. However, this is driven by a ‘quantity’ effect: the shorter course duration reduced the direct and indirect costs of acquiring post-primary education and allowed more students to enrol, which provided access to better job opportunities. On aggregate, this has dominated the negative effect on education ‘quality’. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effects of school attendance on child labour and literacy: regression discontinuity evidence from Ghana
By Opoku K.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of school attendance on learning and child labour in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a nationally representative sample of household and individual data in 2005/06 and 2011/12 for the analysis. Regression discontinuity, the capitation grant in 2005 as exogenous, is used to estimate the impact of school attendance on child labour and learning outcomes. Findings The study found that children who were exposed to the capitation grant spent more hours in school and were more likely to enrol in primary school. School attendance was found to increase the likelihood to read and write a standardised test in English. Also, the improvement in children's school attendance was found to enhance the likelihood of performing a written calculation. The authors could not find any evidence that school attendance affected child labour. Originality/value This research is the first causality analysis in sub-Saharan Africa that uses a nationally representative dataset to study the impact of school attendance on child labour and learning outcomes using a regression discontinuity estimator to deal with endogeneity issues.
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