Women Empowerment & Child Health in Developing Countries - Continuation 2

描述（由申请人提供）：人们普遍认为，提高女性（和男性）的教育水平可以提高初婚年龄，降低生育率，改善母婴健康。利用两个独特的随机实验，这个拟议的项目将研究教育对撒哈拉以南非洲早期生育率和儿童健康的影响，并提供证据，说明获得这些影响的渠道。该项目被提议作为R01 HD039922（发展中国家妇女赋权和儿童健康）赠款的续期。在之前的工作中，在当前赠款的支持下，我们已经证明，在两种情况下（肯尼亚的小学高年级教育和加纳的中学教育），降低教育成本可以显著提高入学率。2003年，在肯尼亚，从328所学校中随机挑选163所学校的六年级学生免费获得校服，从而大大提高了入学率，并大大降低了少女怀孕率。2008年，在加纳，我们确定了2064名有资格进入中学（10年级及以上）但由于缺乏资金而没有入学的学生。其中682名学生被随机抽取，获得四年的中学奖学金。获得奖学金的学生中有81%进入中学学习，而对照组学生的入学率只有16%。在这个项目中，我们建议利用这些独特的实验，这些实验在大样本中产生了受教育程度的外生变化，来检验教育对早期生育和儿童健康的影响，以及解释这些影响的因果途径。在这两种情况下，我们都在收集受其影响的学生的详细数据，这些数据是在最初干预的几年后收集的。在肯尼亚，数据收集工作将在2010年底前完成，资金来自其他来源。在加纳，我们计划每年跟踪研究队列，并在2012年、2015年（和2018年，等待其他来源的额外资金）进行详细访谈。在这两种情况下，收集的数据集都非常丰富，包括态度、认知和非认知技能、偏好等方面的数据，并将向公众提供。在这两种情况下，我们将(a)比较治疗组和对照组妇女的早育发生率和儿童健康（测量和报告），以衡量教育（肯尼亚的初等教育，加纳的中等教育）对早育和儿童健康的影响；(b)阐明男女受教育机会影响早期生育选择和儿童健康的各种渠道。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It is widely believed that improving women's (and men's) education can increase age at first marriage, reduce fertility, and improve maternal and child health. Taking advantage of two unique randomized experiments, this proposed project will study the impact of education on early fertility and child health in Sub-Saharan Africa, and provide evidence on the channels through which these effects are obtained. This project is proposed as a renewal to grant R01 HD039922, Women Empowerment & Child Health in Developing Countries. In previous work, supported by the current grant, we have shown, in two settings (upper primary education in Kenya and secondary education in Ghana), that reducing the cost of education leads to significant increases in school participation. In Kenya, in 2003, free uniforms were distributed to grade 6 students in 163 schools, randomly selected out of 328, leading to a significant increase in school participation and a significant decrease in teenage pregnancy. In Ghana, in 2008, we identified 2,064 students who qualified for secondary school (grade 10 and onwards) but who did not enroll due to lack of funds. 682 of these students were randomly selected to receive a 4-year scholarship for secondary school. 81% of those who received the scholarship offer enrolled in secondary school, while the enrollment rate among control students was only 16%. In this project, we propose to exploit these unique experiments, which have generated exogenous variation in educational attainment in large samples, to examine the impact of education on early fertility and child health, and the causal pathways that explain these effects. In both settings, we are collecting detailed data, several years after the initial intervention, on students who were affected by it. In Kenya, the data collection will be completed by the end of 2010 with funding from other sources. In Ghana, we plan to follow the study cohort yearly, and to conduct detailed interviews in 2012, 2015 (and 2018, pending additional funding from other sources). In both cases, the data sets collected are very rich, including data on attitudes, cognitive and non-cognitive skills, preferences, etc., and will be made publicly available. In both settings, we will (a) compare the incidence of early fertility and the health of children (both measured and reported) between treatment and control women, to measure the impact of education (primary education in Kenya, secondary education in Ghana) on early fertility and child health; and (b) shed light on the channels through which access to education of men and women affects early fertility choices and child health. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The Millennium Development Goals, adopted by the UN, call for universal primary education for boys and girls, equality in education for boys and girls, and reduction in maternal and child mortality. In order to achieve these goals, we need reliable evidence on which policies can effectively help students, girls in particular, to stay in school. We also need evidence on the role of education in ensuring healthy reproductive behavior. The knowledge gained in this proposal will contribute to this objective by enriching our understanding of the determinants and the impact of women's (and men's) education in developing countries.