Women’s schooling, home teaching, and economic growth

Increased investment in schooling is often promoted as a key development strategy aimed at promoting economic growth. Most of the micro evidence that has been used to support the importance of schooling in augmenting incomes in low-income countries comes mainly from data describing the returns to schooling for men (e.g, Psacharopolous (1994)). Given the relatively low rates of participation by women in formal-sector labor markets in such countries, information on the potential contribution of women’s schooling to income is less available and where found problematical to interpret due to labor market selectivity. Advocates of development and poverty reduction policies that emphasize investments in female schooling, however, suggest that significant returns to women’s schooling are to be found in the household sector, where the schooling of women has important effects on the human capital of future generation