Abstract:
Most low- and middle-income countries have implemented mass education reforms in the last few decades. Demographers and policymakers have posited that mass schooling would enhance women\'s autonomy and, therefore, accelerate population transformations in the Global South. However, gains in women\'s schooling may have unexpected implications for female autonomy in contexts where hypergamy norms-the ideal that men should marry down and women should marry up in education and other markers of status-are still dominant. This study addresses difficulties in evaluating the causal impact of additional education on women\'s autonomy by leveraging the timing of compulsory schooling reforms in three Latin American countries: Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru. Using Demographic and Health Surveys, I implement an instrumental variable design using random exposure to compulsory schooling laws as an instrument for years of education. Results show that for women who entered the school system as a result of compulsory reforms, further schooling decreased their level of autonomy in all countries-especially among women from rural Bolivia and Peru. Additional analyses suggest these results are explained by changes in the selection into schooling and the formation of unions defying hypergamy norms. Together, these findings highlight the importance of examining the returns to mass schooling considering population heterogeneity and the contextual meaning of women\'s education.
摘要:
在过去的几十年中,大多数低收入和中等收入国家都实施了大众教育改革。人口学家和政策制定者认为,大众教育将增强妇女的自主性,因此,加速全球南方的人口转变。然而,女性受教育程度的提高可能会对女性自主权产生意想不到的影响,因为在这种情况下,过度劳美规范——男性应该结婚,女性应该在教育和其他地位标志中结婚——仍然占主导地位。这项研究通过利用三个拉丁美洲国家的义务教育改革的时间来评估额外教育对妇女自治的因果影响方面的困难:玻利维亚,哥伦比亚,秘鲁。使用人口和健康调查,我使用随机接触义务教育法作为多年教育的工具来实施工具变量设计。结果表明,对于因强制改革而进入学校系统的妇女,进一步的学校教育降低了她们在所有国家的自治水平,特别是玻利维亚和秘鲁农村的妇女。其他分析表明,这些结果可以通过选择学校教育的变化和工会的形成来解释。一起,这些发现强调了在考虑人口异质性和女性教育的背景意义的情况下,研究大众教育回报的重要性。