Less School (Costs), More (Female) Education? Lessons from Egypt Reducing Years of Compulsory Schooling

Ahmed Elsayed () and Olivier Marie
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Ahmed Elsayed: American University in Cairo

No 13402, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Exploiting a unique policy reform in Egypt that reduced the number of years of compulsory schooling, we show how it unexpectedly increased education attainment as more students chose to complete the next school stage. This impact is almost entirely driven by girls from more disadvantaged households. Treated women later experienced important positive improvements in labor market opportunity and marriage quality, as measured by bride price received and household bargaining power. We attribute the increased investment in daughters' human capital to changes in the behavior of credit-constrained families facing reduced school costs combined with strongly non-linear returns to female education.

Keywords: school costs; education investment; gender bias; female labor market; marriage; bride price; Egypt (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I25 J24 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 65 pages
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara, nep-dev, nep-edu, nep-gen, nep-lma and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Less School (Costs), More (Female) Education? Lessons from Egypt Reducing Years of Compulsory Schooling (2021)
Working Paper: Less School (Costs), More (Female) Education? Lessons from Egypt Reducing Years of Compulsory Schooling (2020)
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