Does Education Empower Women? Evidence from Indonesia

Shanika Samarakoon and Rasyad Parinduri

World Development, 2015, vol. 66, issue C, 428-442

Abstract: This paper examines whether education empowers women. We exploit an exogenous variation in education induced by a longer school year in Indonesia in 1978, which fits a fuzzy regression discontinuity design. We find education reduces the number of live births, increases contraceptive use, and promotes reproductive health practices. However, except for a few outcome measures, we do not find evidence that education improves women’s decision-making authority within households, asset ownership, or community participation. These results suggest that, to some extent, education does empower women in middle-income countries like Indonesia.

Keywords: education; women’s empowerment; regression discontinuity design; Southeast Asia; Indonesia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (41)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:66:y:2015:i:c:p:428-442

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.09.002

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