The Gendered Impact of Rural Road Improvement on Schooling Decisions and Youth Employment in Morocco

Yasuharu Shimamura, Satoshi Shimizutani, Eiji Yamada and Hiroyuki Yamada
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Eiji Yamada: JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development

No 2022-001, Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series from Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of a rural road improvement project on schooling decisions and youth employment in Morocco. Paved rural roads are expected to reduce travel time and costs, allowing additional school choices and increasing the motivation for youth to enter higher education in response to higher returns. On the other hand, immediate earnings opportunities created by new connections may encourage youth to seek paid employment. Thus, the impact of rural road improvement on schooling and youth employment warrants empirical investigation. We employ a difference-indifferences estimation using a household-level dataset with a five-year interval collected under a quasi-experimental setting. First, we do not observe any positive effect on primary school completion for either sex, but we find a positive and significant effect on secondary school attainment or above only for females. Moreover, the higher educational attainment of females is associated with a lower proportion of early marriage. Second, we do not observe any significant effects on self-employment for either sex, but we find a positive and significant effect on wage employment only for males, which is pronounced among the better educated. Our findings reveal sharp gendered differences in the impact of the rural road improvement project, with increased motivation toward better education for females and paid work for males.

Keywords: rural road improvement; schooling outcomes; youth employment; market integration; Morocco; gender. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I25 J24 O18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2022-01-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara, nep-dev, nep-his and nep-ure
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Journal Article: The Gendered Impact of Rural Road Improvement on Schooling Decisions and Youth Employment in Morocco (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:keo:dpaper:2022-001

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