Legacy of Colonial Education: Unveiling Persistence Mechanisms in the D.R. Congo

Pablo Álvarez-Aragón (), Catherine Guirkinger () and Paola Villar
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Pablo Álvarez-Aragón: Development Finance and Public Policies, University of Namur

No 2305, DeFiPP Working Papers from University of Namur, Development Finance and Public Policies

Abstract: The mechanisms that contribute to the enduring effects of colonial investments in education on human capital today are not well understood.This paper addresses this gap by examining the case of colonial Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. We first document the enduring effects of colonial education and then analyze both demand-side channels and supply-side mechanisms. Using detailed contemporary and historical microdata,our results show that exposure to colonial Catholic and Protestant missionary education led to different demand-side mechanisms (intergenerational transmission and educational mobility triggered by missions). However,the quantitative importance of these channels seems limited in this context. On the supply side, we examine the dynamics of school location after independence. Our results suggest that the persistence of educational outcomes is primarily due to the concentration of contemporary schools around historical missions. This agglomeration effect appears to be driven by competition among religious schools of different denominations (and possibly by structural change in the vicinity of Catholic missions). As a result, girls living farther from historical missions have to travel greater distances to reach schools, which affects their enrollment more than that of boys.

Pages: 69 pages
Date: 2023-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-his
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nam:defipp:2305

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