Regional favoritism and educational attainment in Africa

We investigate the impact of regional favoritism on educational attainment in Africa. Using geocoded, individual-level survey data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), we show that men who grew up in areas geographically linked to a national leader attain higher levels of education later in life. In contrast, we observe no beneficial effects of geographical leader connections for women on average; only a subset of women who have additional ethnic ties and are possibly from wealthier families experience such effects. We interpret these results using a discrete choice framework that models decisions regarding whether children continue schooling based on perceived returns to education versus the costs of that education. This framework suggests that preferential educational policies are unlikely to be the primary cause of the higher attainment observed for men and the subset of women mentioned previously. Instead, educational choices appear to respond to expectations of local economic booms in geographically connected regions. Additional evidence, such as regarding the likelihood of skilled employment later in life, supports this interpretation.