Education and Human Capital Externalities: Evidence from Colonial Benin *

Abstract

Using a unique data set on students from the first regional schools in colonial Benin, we investigate the effect of education on living standards, occupation, and political participation. Since both school locations and student cohorts were selected with very little information, treatment and control groups are balanced on observables. We can therefore estimate the effect of education by comparing the treated to the untreated living in the same village, as well as those living in villages where no schools were set up. We find a significant positive treatment effect of education for the first generation of students, as well as their descendants: they have higher living standards, are less likely to be farmers, and are more likely to be politically active. We find large village-level externalities—descendants of the uneducated in villages with schools do better than those in control villages. We also find extended family externalities—nephews and nieces directly benefit from their uncle’s education—and show that this represents a “family tax,” as educated uncles transfer resources to the extended family.

The Role of Lifelong Learning in Political Stability and Non-Violence: Evidence from Africa

“…Indeed, recent evidence has shown that such externalities are considerably relevant in Africa's transformation into a knowledge economy (Wantchekon et al, 2014). Hence, policy initiatives to provide educational inducements would be vital in those African countries, such as Burundi, Liberia, Rwanda, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Congo…”

“…As far as we know the current extant of KE literature has not attempted to tackle the connection between lifelong learning and political stability/non-violence. The main issues considered by this KE literature have been, among other things: general opinions of KE (Lin, 2006;Makinda, 2007;Rooney, 2005;Aubert, 2005), KE in space transformation (Moodley, 2003;Maswera et al, 2008), spatiality in the production of knowledge (Bidwell et al, 2011;Neimark, 2012), economic incentives and institutional regimes (Letiche, 2006;Cogburn, 2003;Saxegaard, 2006;Andrés and Asongu, 2013a;Nguena and Tsafack, 2014), education (Kamara et al, 2007;Ford, 2007;Amavilah, 2009;Weber, 2011;Wantchekon et al, 2014), information and communication technologies (Jonathan and Camilo, 2008;Maurer, 2008;Chavula, 2010;Ondiege, 2010;Merritt, 2010;Aker and Mbiti, 2010;Butcher, 2011;Thacker, and Wright, 2012;Demonbynes and Thegeya, 2012;Penard et al, 2012;Asongu, 2015aAsongu, , 2013a, intellectual capital and economic development (Wagiciengo & Belal, 2012;Preece, 2013), innovation (Oyelaran-Oyeyinka and Sampath, 2007;Carisle et al, 2013;Oluwatobi et al, 2014), research and development (Sumberg, 2005;German and Stroud, 2007), intellectual pr...…”

Globalization, Peace & Stability, Governance, and Knowledge Economy

“…discussions of the phenomenon (Rooney, 2005;Lin, 2006;Anyanwu, 2012); information & communication technologies (Butcher, 2011); education (Amavilah, 2009a;Ford, 2007;Weber, 2011;Wantchekon et al, 2014); institutional regime & economic incentives (Letiche, 2006;Cogburn, 2003;Andrés & Asongu, 2013); intellectual capital & economic development (Wagiciengo & Belal, 2012;Preece, 2013); innovation (Oyelaran-Oyeyinka & Sampath, 2007;Carisle et al, 2013); research & development ( Sumberg, 2005;German & Stroud, 2007); indigenous knowledge systems (Lwoga et al, 2010;Raseroka, 2008); KE in the transformation of space (Moodley, 2003;Maswera et al, 2008); intellectual property rights (Lor & Britz, 2005;Zerbe, 2005;Andrés & Asongu, 2013;Myburgh, 2011;Andrés et al, 2014); and spatiality in the production of knowledge (Bidwell et al, 2011;Neimark, 2012) .…”

Historical Missionary Activity, Schooling, and the Reversal of Fortunes: Evidence from Nigeria

“…In particular, we use data from Nigeria to study the long-term effects of historical missionary activity on schooling and wealth, and explore the reasons why the effects of missionary activity have persisted. As in other studies examining the effects of historical shocks on economic development within homogenous territories (see Huillery (2009), Wantchekon et al (2013), and Acemoglu et al (2014)), we focus on a single country because it makes the sources of differences in missionary activity easier to identify, and immediately accounts for any country and colonial history fixed effects. Nigeria also presents an interesting case study because of the rich variation in missionary activity generated by the timing of the British colonial government's policy of indirect rule.…”