NOVAFRICA Seminar:
“Girls’ Schooling Choices and Home Production: Evidence from Pakistan”

On Wednesday, November 25th, at 2.30pm, the NOVAFRICA Center welcomes Hugo Reis, from the Bank of Portugal to present his work on children’s schooling and mothers’ labour market participation decisions in Pakistan.

Author:
Hugo Reis

Abstract:
The paper develops and estimates a dynamic structural model that allows for the interrelations between girls’ schooling and mothers’ labour market participation decision, in a rural area of Pakistan where drop-out rates are considerably high. The model incorporates home production, which is critical for understanding the behaviour of mothers when deciding girls’ schooling. Results suggest that monetary incentives are a good mechanism to increase girls’ school enrollment, but not the most cost effective. The impact of the conditional cash transfer program on secondary school enrollment rate was only one third of the impact of the school building program. Regarding welfare, the difference between schemes is smaller. Results highlight also the effectiveness of the role of conditionality.