Birth Registration and the Impact on Educational Attainment

Ana Corbacho, Steve Brito and Rene Osorio Rivas

No 4060, IDB Publications (Working Papers) from Inter-American Development Bank

Abstract: The drivers of educational attainment have been the subject of much research both in the developed and the developing world. Yet, nothing is known about the effect of birth registration on schooling outcomes. Birth registration is not only a fundamental human right but also a requirement to obtain additional documents of legal identity and access many government benefits. Using data for the Dominican Republic, this paper is the first to shed light on the causal impact of the lack of birth registration on education. Controlling for potential endogeneity and standard socioeconomic determinants of education, this paper finds that children without documents of birth registration do not face lower chances of entering the schooling system. Yet, the absence of birth registration becomes a critical obstacle to graduate from primary school and translates into fewer years of overall educational attainment.

Keywords: Tax Revenue; Elasticities; Business Cycles; Schooling; Under-registration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O12 R12 R20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-08
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:idb:brikps:4060

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