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Adjusting Household Structure: School Enrollment Impacts of Child Fostering in Burkina Faso

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  • Akresh, Richard

Abstract

Researchers claim that children growing up away from their biological parents may be at a disadvantage and have lower human capital investment. This paper measures the impact of child fostering on school enrollment and uses household and child fixed effects regressions to address the endogeneity of fostering. Data collection by the author involved tracking and interviewing the sending and receiving household participating in of foster children with their non-fostered biological siblings. Foster children are equally likely as their host siblings to be enrolled after fostering and are 3.6 percent more likely to be enrolled than their biological siblings. Relative to children from non-fostering households, host siblings, biological siblings, and foster children all experience increased enrollment after the fostering exchange, indicating fostering may help insulate poor households from adverse shocks. This Pareto improvement in schooling translates into a long-run improvement in educational and occupational attainment.

Suggested Citation

  • Akresh, Richard, 2004. "Adjusting Household Structure: School Enrollment Impacts of Child Fostering in Burkina Faso," Center Discussion Papers 28521, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:yaleeg:28521
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.28521
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    Cited by:

    1. Edmonds, Eric V., 2008. "Child Labor," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 57, pages 3607-3709, Elsevier.
    2. Marcel Fafchamps & Agnes R. Quisumbing & IFPRI, 2006. "Household Formation and Marriage Markets," Economics Series Working Papers GPRG-WPS-039, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    3. Michael Grimm, 2008. "Food price inflation and schooling," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 174, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Richard Akresh, 2005. "Risk, Network Quality, and Family Structure: Child Fostering Decisions in Burkina Faso," Working Papers 902, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    5. Beck, Simon & De Vreyer, Philippe & Lambert, Sylvie & Marazyan, Karine & Safir, Abla, 2014. "Child Fostering in Senegal," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 1403, CEPREMAP.
    6. Ariyo, Esther & Mortelmans, Dimitri & Wouters, Edwin, 2019. "The African child in kinship care: A systematic review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 178-187.
    7. Schultz, T. Paul, 2008. "Population Policies, Fertility, Women's Human Capital, and Child Quality," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 52, pages 3249-3303, Elsevier.
    8. Serra, Renata, 2009. "Child fostering in Africa: When labor and schooling motives may coexist," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 157-170, January.
    9. de Walque, Damien, 2005. "Parental education and children's schooling outcomes : is the effect nature, nurture, or both? evidence from recomposed families in Rwanda," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3483, The World Bank.
    10. 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.
    11. Katy Cornwell & Brett Inder & Pushkar Maitra & Anu Rammohan, 2005. "Household Composition and Schooling of Rural South African Children: Sibling Synergy and Migrant Effects," Monash Economics Working Papers 22/05, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    12. Beegle, Kathleen & Filmer, Deon & Stokes, Andrew & Tiererova, Lucia, 2010. "Orphanhood and the Living Arrangements of Children in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 1727-1746, December.
    13. Eric Edmonds & Maheshwor Shrestha, 2009. "Children's Work and Independent Child Migration: A critical review," Papers inwopa586, Innocenti Working Papers.
    14. Fafchamps, Marcel, 2010. "Vulnerability, risk management and agricultural development," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 5(1), pages 1-18, September.
    15. Youyou BAENDE BOFOTA, 2013. "The impact of social capital on children educational outcomes: The case of Tanzania," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2013003, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    16. Parfait Eloundou-Enyegue & Lindy Williams, 2006. "Family size and schooling in sub-Saharan African settings: A reexamination," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 43(1), pages 25-52, February.
    17. Badaoui, Eliane & Mangiavacchi, Lucia, 2022. "Assessing the impact of fostering on children’s outcomes in Niger," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    18. Michael Grimm, 2008. "Food Price Inflation and Children's Schooling," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 844, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    19. Bose-Duker, Theophiline & Henry, Michael & Strobl, Eric, 2021. "Child fostering and the educational outcomes of Jamaican children," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    20. Christian Kweku Darko & Fiona Carmichael, 2020. "Education of Biological and Fostered Children in Ghana: The Influence of Relationships with the Household Head and Household Structure," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(4), pages 487-504, May.
    21. Sophie Hedges & Rebecca Sear & Jim Todd & Mark Urassa & David Lawson, 2019. "Earning their keep? Fostering, children's education, and work in north-western Tanzania," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 41(10), pages 263-292.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor and Human Capital;

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General

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