A Teenager in Love: Multidimensional Human Capital and Teenage Pregnancy in Ghana

Niels-Hugo (Hugo) Blunch

No 10663, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: I examine teenage pregnancy in Ghana, focusing on the role and interplay of Ghanaian and English reading skills, formal educational attainment, and adult literacy program participation. Pursuing several alternative identification strategies three main results are established. First, I confirm the finding from previous studies that educational attainment is negatively related to teenage pregnancy. Second, however, once Ghanaian and English reading skills are introduced, the association between educational attainment and teenage pregnancy decreases or disappears altogether. Third, for the girls who have not completed primary school, adult literacy program participation is associated with a much lower probability of experiencing a teenage pregnancy.

Keywords: literacy; human capital; teenage pregnancy; adult literacy programs; Ghana (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2017-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: Journal of Development Studies, 2018, 54 (3), 557 - 573

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Related works:
Journal Article: A Teenager in Love: Multidimensional Human Capital and Teenage Pregnancy in Ghana (2018)
Working Paper: A Teenager in Love: Multidimensional Human Capital and Teenage Pregnancy in Ghana (2017)
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