Intergenerational Education Mobility in Africa : Has Progress Been Inclusive?
This paper employs nationally representative household survey data on parents of adult individuals to analyze the intergenerational transmission of education in nine Sub-Saharan African countries. The paper provides the levels, trends, and patterns...
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| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/09/26826533/intergenerational-education-mobility-africa-progress-inclusive http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25159 |
| Summary: | This paper employs nationally
representative household survey data on parents of adult
individuals to analyze the intergenerational transmission of
education in nine Sub-Saharan African countries. The paper
provides the levels, trends, and patterns of
intergenerational persistence of educational attainment over
50 years, with a special focus on gender differences. The
study finds a declining cohort trend in the
intergenerational educational persistence in all the
countries, particularly after the 1960s. The increase in
educational mobility coincides with drastic changes in
educational systems and a huge investment in human capital
accumulation in the region following independence.
Nevertheless, the education of parents' remains a
strong determinant of educational outcomes among the
children in all the countries. Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, and
Uganda experienced the highest intergenerational mobility,
and the Comoros and Madagascar the lowest. In all the sample
countries, more mobility is observed in the lower tail of
the distribution of education. Intergenerational educational
persistence is strong from mothers to children, and the
effect is more pronounced among daughters than sons. The
results highlight the need for targeted redistributive
policies that improve intergenerational mobility in the region. |
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