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Do Dreams Come True? Aspirations and Educational Attainments of Ethiopian Boys and Girls

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  • Marta Favara

Abstract

We use unique individual-level panel data from Ethiopia to investigate the role of aspirations for human-capital investments. More specifically, we investigate how parental and children's aspirations form and document the relation between early aspirations and educational attainment at the age of 15 and 19. We find that aspirations are predictive of the number of year of schooling completed upon controlling for cognitive and non-cognitive skills together with a broad set of individuals and household-level characteristics. Interestingly, this correlation is stronger for boys than for girls. We find evidence of an early age pro-boys gender bias in aspirations which is diverted by age 19 when more girls than boys are still enroled at school. Finally, we documented the transmission of aspirations from parents to children and the role played by parental non-educational expectations in explaining this gender bias.

Suggested Citation

  • Marta Favara, 2017. "Do Dreams Come True? Aspirations and Educational Attainments of Ethiopian Boys and Girls," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 26(5), pages 561-583.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jafrec:v:26:y:2017:i:5:p:561-583.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jae/ejx018
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Dalton, Patricio & Rüschenpöhler, Julius & Zia, Bilal, 2018. "Aspirations of Small-scale Entrepreneurs : Evidence from Urban Retailers in Indonesia," Other publications TiSEM bc573b53-32a8-497b-a67d-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Aregawi G. Gebremariam & Elisabetta Lodigiani & Giacomo Pasini, 2017. "The impact of Ethiopian Productive Safety-net Program on children's educational aspirations," Working Papers 2017:26, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    3. Xu, Hui & Zhang, Zheyuan & Zhao, Zhong, 2023. "Parental socioeconomic status and children’s cognitive ability in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    4. Daniel Borbely & Jonathan Norris & Agnese Romiti, 2023. "Peer Gender and Schooling: Evidence from Ethiopia," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(2), pages 207-249.
    5. Fiona Carmichael & Christian K. Darko & Nicholas Vasilakos, 2022. "Well‐being and employment of young people in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam: Is work enough?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 40(2), March.
    6. Aregawi G Gebremariam & Elisabetta Lodigiani & Giacomo Pasini, 2024. "The Impact of Ethiopian Productive Safety Net Program on Children's Educational Aspirations and Attainments," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 33(3), pages 271-296.
    7. Fatima Zahra & Nicole Haberland & Stephanie Psaki, 2022. "PROTOCOL: Causal mechanisms linking education with fertility, HIV, and child mortality: A systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(2), June.
    8. Jeffrey R. Bloem, 2021. "Aspirations and investments in rural Myanmar," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(4), pages 727-752, December.
    9. Elisabetta Aurino & Whitney Schott & Jere R. Behrman & Mary Penny, 2019. "Nutritional Status from 1 to 15 Years and Adolescent Learning for Boys and Girls in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 38(6), pages 899-931, December.
    10. Tabe-Ojong, Martin Paul Jr & Heckelei, Thomas & Rasch, Sebastian, 2022. "Aspirations and Investments in Livestock: Evidence of an aspiration failure in Kenya," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322435, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Dalton,Patricio S. & Ruschenpohler,Julius & Zia,Bilal Husnain, 2018. "Determinants and dynamics of business aspirations : evidence from small-scale entrepreneurs in an emerging market," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8400, The World Bank.
    12. Shelly Lundberg, 2020. "Educational gender gaps," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(2), pages 416-439, October.
    13. Tabe-Ojong, Jr., Martin Paul & Godana, Guyo, 2022. "Are Agro-clusters Pro-Poor? Evidence from Ethiopia," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322432, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Martin Paul Jr. Tabe‐Ojong & Thomas Heckelei & Sebastian Rasch, 2023. "Aspirations and investments in livestock: Evidence of aspiration failure in Kenya," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(5), pages 674-696, September.
    15. Isidro Soloaga & Alejandra Villegas & Raymundo Campos, 2022. "Aspirations, personal traits and neighborhood environment," Working Paper Series Sobre México 2022006, Sobre México. Temas en economía.
    16. Xuan Huo & Huawei Han & Qin Gao, 2023. "Does Welfare Participation Affect Adolescent Educational Aspiration? Evidence from Panel Data in China," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(3), pages 1171-1202, June.
    17. Judith R Glynn & Bindu S Sunny & Bianca DeStavola & Albert Dube & Menard Chihana & Alison J Price & Amelia C Crampin, 2018. "Early school failure predicts teenage pregnancy and marriage: A large population-based cohort study in northern Malawi," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-17, May.
    18. Tabe-Ojong, Martin Paul Jr. & Nshakira-Rukundo, Emmanuel, 2021. "Religiosity and parental educational aspirations for children in Kenya," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).

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