IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecoedu/v33y2013icp69-81.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of household possessions on youth's academic achievement in the Ghana Youthsave experiment: A propensity score analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Chowa, Gina A.N.
  • Masa, Rainier D.
  • Wretman, Christopher J.
  • Ansong, David

Abstract

Household assets as part of youth's family background have been found to have a significant impact on youth's academic achievement. In this study, the impact of household possessions on youth's academic achievement in the Ghana YouthSave experiment is investigated. Findings support the hypothesized positive direction of the impact of household possessions on academic achievement of youth. Results show youth from households that reported owning at least one of the five household possessions scored almost one unit higher on English than their peers from households that do not own any. However, results indicate ownership of household possessions does not have a statistically significant impact on Math scores of youth. Consistent with prior studies, this study presents evidence of the importance of family economic background, particularly asset ownership, on youth's academic achievement. Policy implications are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Chowa, Gina A.N. & Masa, Rainier D. & Wretman, Christopher J. & Ansong, David, 2013. "The impact of household possessions on youth's academic achievement in the Ghana Youthsave experiment: A propensity score analysis," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 69-81.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:33:y:2013:i:c:p:69-81
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2012.08.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775712001112
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econedurev.2012.08.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fafchamps, Marcel & Quisumbing, Agnes, 2005. "Assets at marriage in rural Ethiopia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 1-25, June.
    2. Mark Montgomery & Monica Grant & Barbara Mensch & Rania Roushdy, 2005. "Children's Schooling in Developing-Country Slums: A Comparison of Egypt and India," Department of Economics Working Papers 05-07, Stony Brook University, Department of Economics.
    3. Zhao, Meng & Glewwe, Paul, 2010. "What determines basic school attainment in developing countries? Evidence from rural China," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 451-460, June.
    4. Isaac Addai & Jelena Pokimica, 2010. "Ethnicity and Economic Well-Being: The Case of Ghana," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 99(3), pages 487-510, December.
    5. Milton Friedman, 1957. "Introduction to "A Theory of the Consumption Function"," NBER Chapters, in: A Theory of the Consumption Function, pages 1-6, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Schmitt, John & Wadsworth, Jonathan, 2006. "Is there an impact of household computer ownership on children's educational attainment in Britain?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 659-673, December.
    7. Heckman, James J, 1978. "Dummy Endogenous Variables in a Simultaneous Equation System," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(4), pages 931-959, July.
    8. Deon Filmer & Kinnon Scott, 2012. "Assessing Asset Indices," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(1), pages 359-392, February.
    9. Curley, Jami & Ssewamala, Fred & Han, Chang-Keun, 2010. "Assets and educational outcomes: Child Development Accounts (CDAs) for orphaned children in Uganda," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(11), pages 1585-1590, November.
    10. Alberto Abadie & David Drukker & Jane Leber Herr & Guido W. Imbens, 2004. "Implementing matching estimators for average treatment effects in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 4(3), pages 290-311, September.
    11. Elliott, William & Destin, Mesmin & Friedline, Terri, 2011. "Taking stock of ten years of research on the relationship between assets and children's educational outcomes: Implications for theory, policy and intervention," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 2312-2328.
    12. Fairlie, Robert W., 2005. "The effects of home computers on school enrollment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 533-547, October.
    13. Judith Blake, 1981. "Family size and the quality of children," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 18(4), pages 421-442, November.
    14. Arleen Leibowitz, 1974. "Home Investments in Children," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of the Family: Marriage, Children, and Human Capital, pages 432-456, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Rodrigo R. Soares & Diana Kruger & Matias Berthelon, 2012. "Household Choices of Child Labor and Schooling: A Simple Model with Application to Brazil," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 47(1), pages 1-31.
    16. Glick, Peter & Sahn, David E., 2009. "Cognitive skills among children in Senegal: Disentangling the roles of schooling and family background," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 178-188, April.
    17. John R. Reynolds & Jennifer Pemberton, 2001. "Rising College Expectations among Youth in the United States: A Comparison of the 1979 and 1997 NLSY," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 36(4), pages 703-726.
    18. Carmen Diana Deere & Cheryl Doss, 2006. "The Gender Asset Gap: What Do We Know And Why Does It Matter?," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 1-50.
    19. Elliott, William & Sherraden, Margaret & Johnson, Lissa & Guo, Baorong, 2010. "Young children's perceptions of college and saving: Potential role of Child Development Accounts," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(11), pages 1577-1584, November.
    20. John Cockburn & Benoit Dostie, 2007. "Child Work and Schooling: The Role of Household Asset Profiles and Poverty in Rural Ethiopia," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 16(4), pages 519-563, August.
    21. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens, 2002. "Simple and Bias-Corrected Matching Estimators for Average Treatment Effects," NBER Technical Working Papers 0283, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Grimm, Michael, 2011. "Does household income matter for children's schooling? Evidence for rural Sub-Saharan Africa," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 740-754, August.
    23. Lincove, Jane Arnold, 2009. "Determinants of schooling for boys and girls in Nigeria under a policy of free primary education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 474-484, August.
    24. Huang, Jin & Guo, Baorong & Kim, Youngmi & Sherraden, Michael, 2010. "Parental income, assets, borrowing constraints and children's post-secondary education," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 585-594, April.
    25. Haiyun Zhao, 2010. "Economics education in China," International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 1(4), pages 303-316.
    26. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    27. Chowa, Gina & Ansong, David & Masa, Rainier, 2010. "Assets and child well-being in developing countries: A research review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(11), pages 1508-1519, November.
    28. Shapiro, David & Oleko Tambashe, B., 2001. "Gender, poverty, family structure, and investments in children's education in Kinshasa, Congo," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 359-375, August.
    29. Elliott III, William, 2009. "Children's college aspirations and expectations: The potential role of children's development accounts (CDAs)," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 274-283, February.
    30. Milton Friedman, 1957. "A Theory of the Consumption Function," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number frie57-1.
    31. Deon Filmer & Lant Pritchett, 1999. "The Effect of Household Wealth on Educational Attainment: Evidence from 35 Countries," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 25(1), pages 85-120, March.
    32. Moser, Caroline O. N., 1998. "The asset vulnerability framework: Reassessing urban poverty reduction strategies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 1-19, January.
    33. Arleen Leibowitz, 1974. "Home Investments in Children," NBER Chapters, in: Marriage, Family, Human Capital, and Fertility, pages 111-135, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    34. Williams Shanks, Trina R. & Kim, Youngmi & Loke, Vernon & Destin, Mesmin, 2010. "Assets and child well-being in developed countries," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(11), pages 1488-1496, November.
    35. Leibowitz, Arleen, 1974. "Home Investments in Children," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(2), pages 111-131, Part II, .
    36. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens, 2006. "Large Sample Properties of Matching Estimators for Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(1), pages 235-267, January.
    37. Behrman, Jere R & Birdsall, Nancy, 1983. "The Quality of Schooling: Quantity Alone is Misleading," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(5), pages 928-946, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. María-Jesús Mancebón & Domingo P. Ximénez-de-Embún & Mauro Mediavilla & José-María Gómez-Sancho, 2015. "Does educational management model matter? New evidence for Spain by a quasiexperimental approach," Working Papers 2015/40, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    2. David Ansong & Gina Chowa & Rainier Masa & Mathieu Despard & Michael Sherraden & Shiyou Wu & Isaac Osei-Akoto, 2019. "Effects of Youth Savings Accounts on School Attendance and Academic Performance: Evidence from a Youth Savings Experiment," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 269-281, June.
    3. Kafle, Kashi & Jolliffe, Dean & Winter-Nelson, Alex, 2018. "Do different types of assets have differential effects on child education? Evidence from Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 14-28.
    4. Chowa, Gina A.N. & Masa, Rainier D. & Ramos, Yalitza & Ansong, David, 2015. "How do student and school characteristics influence youth academic achievement in Ghana? A hierarchical linear modeling of Ghana YouthSave baseline data," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 129-140.
    5. Hady Senghor & François-Charles Wolff, 2017. "Educational Inequalities between Siblings: Evidence from Six Sub-Saharan African Countries," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 29(2), pages 223-236, June.
    6. Elliott, William & Sherraden, Michael, 2013. "Assets and educational achievement: Theory and evidence," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 1-7.
    7. María Jesús Mancebón & Domingo P. Ximénez-de-Embún & Mauro Mediavilla & José María Gómez-Sancho, 2019. "Does the educational management model matter? New evidence from a quasiexperimental approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 107-135, January.
    8. Kafle, Kashi R. & Dean, Jolliffe, 2015. "Effects of asset ownership on child health indicators and educational performance in Tanzania," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205687, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Kafle, Kashi & Jolliffe, Dean & Winter-Nelson, Alex, 2016. "Effects of household asset holdings on child educational performance: Evidence from Tanzania," 2016 Fifth International Conference, September 23-26, 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 249273, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    10. Ansong, David & Chowa, Gina A. & Sherraden, Michael, 2015. "Household assets, academic expectations, and academic performance among Ghanaian junior high school students: Investigating mediation," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 101-110.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kim, Youngmi & Sherraden, Michael, 2011. "Do parental assets matter for children's educational attainment?: Evidence from mediation tests," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 969-979, June.
    2. Chowa, Gina A.N. & Masa, Rainier D. & Tucker, Jenna, 2013. "The effects of parental involvement on academic performance of Ghanaian youth: Testing measurement and relationships using structural equation modeling," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 2020-2030.
    3. Felfe, Christina & Deuchert. Eva, 2011. "The tempest: Using a natural disaster to evaluate the link between wealth and child development," Economics Working Paper Series 1146, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    4. Jere R. Behrman, 1994. "Intra-family Distribution in Developing Countries," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 253-296.
    5. Shuxi Zeng & Fan Li & Peng Ding, 2020. "Is being an only child harmful to psychological health?: evidence from an instrumental variable analysis of China's one‐child policy," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 183(4), pages 1615-1635, October.
    6. Fang, Shu & Huang, Jin & Wu, Shiyou & Jin, Minchao & Kim, Youngmi & Henrichsen, Courtney, 2020. "Family assets, parental expectation, and child educational achievement in China: A validation of mediation analyses," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    7. Fang, Shu & Huang, Jin & Curley, Jami & Birkenmaier, Julie, 2018. "Family assets, parental expectations, and children educational performance: An empirical examination from China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 60-68.
    8. Pr Henri Atangana Ondoa, 2018. "The effects of heavily indebted poor countries initiative (HIPC) on millennium development goals (MDGs) for education," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 76(4), pages 453-479, October.
    9. Sonalde Desai & P. Chase-Lansdale & Robert Michael, 1989. "Mother or Market? Effects of Maternal Employment on the Intellectual Ability of 4-Year-Old Children," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 26(4), pages 545-561, November.
    10. Shen, Chung-Hua & Wu, Meng-Wen & Chen, Ting-Hsuan & Fang, Hao, 2016. "To engage or not to engage in corporate social responsibility: Empirical evidence from global banking sector," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 207-225.
    11. Elena Arias Ortiz & Catherine Dehon, 2008. "What are the Factors of Success at University? A Case Study in Belgium," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 54(2), pages 121-148.
    12. J. Gimenez-Nadal & Jose Molina, 2013. "Parents’ education as a determinant of educational childcare time," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(2), pages 719-749, April.
    13. Emilia Bedyk & Jacek Liwiński, 2016. "The wage premium from parents’ investments in the education of their children in Poland," Working Papers 2016-14, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    14. Jacek Liwiński & Emilia Bedyk, 2016. "Does it pay to invest in the education of children?," Ekonomia journal, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, vol. 47.
    15. Zeng, Wu & Undurraga, Eduardo A. & Eisenberg, Dan T.A. & Rubio-Jovel, Karla & Reyes-García, Victoria & Godoy, Ricardo, 2012. "Sibling composition and child educational attainment: Evidence from native Amazonians in Bolivia," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1017-1027.
    16. Carlos Giovanni González Espitia & Jhon James Mora Rodríguez & Cecilia Albert Verdú, 2015. "Corrección del sesgo de selección muestral en la probabilidad de demandar educación universitaria en Colombia," Icesi Economics Working Papers 14567, Universidad Icesi.
    17. Chen, Yongjin & Zhi, Kuiyun & Huang, Jin, 2021. "Family Savings and Children’s Non-Cognitive and Cognitive Development: Evidence from China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    18. Michael P. Keane & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 2009. "Empirical Applications of Discrete Choice Dynamic Programming Models," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, January.
    19. Baez, Javier E., 2008. "Does More Mean Better? Sibling Sex Composition and the Link between Family Size and Children’s Quality," IZA Discussion Papers 3472, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Juan Carlos Campaña & J. Ignacio Giménez-Nadal & José Alberto Molina, 2020. "Self-employed and Employed Mothers in Latin American Families: Are There Differences in Paid Work, Unpaid Work, and Child Care?," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 52-69, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education; Human capital; Household assets; Household possessions; Academic achievement; Propensity score analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:33:y:2013:i:c:p:69-81. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/econedurev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.