Diversification of Human Capital Investments in Rural Ethiopia

Annika Lindskog

The European Journal of Development Research, 2018, vol. 30, issue 4, No 6, 676-692

Abstract: Abstract We investigate household-level diversification of human capital investments in a rural developing country setting. Returns to schooling and to the alternative, which includes acquisition of traditional agrarian knowledge, are uncertain. The theoretical model combines a portfolio-choice model with a human capital investment model. Diversification implies a negative relationship between education of the younger and the older sibling. Diversification is more important in more risk-averse households, and we use the interaction between sibling dependency in education and risk preferences to empirically test for diversification. Moreover, diversification is less important in credit-constrained households. The empirical analysis employs data on school entry of boys and girls in the rural Amhara region of Ethiopia. The results suggest diversification across brothers in households that are less credit-constrained.

Keywords: demand for schooling; human capital; uncertainty; risky investment; diversification; traditional education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 D81 I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1057/s41287-017-0099-y

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