Replication Data Readme file for Chapter 4: Evidence on the marginal impact of a compulsory secondary education reform in Senegal on years of education and changes in high school decisions

Chapter 4 is a case study of how changes in institutional factors may be used to offset the effect of parent’s education on children’s education by improving educational attainment of children. We use the extension of compulsory education in 2004 in Senegal from primary to lower secondary. This involves observing the marginal impact of the increase in the number of years of compulsory education on compulsory school completion (grade 10 completion) and on changes in post-compulsory grades completion (grades 11 to 13 completion). The data used is the 2017 survey on Senegal. The analysis comprises of a treatment group (individuals aged 13 to 15) and a control group (individuals aged 16 to 18). This is because the new school leaving age is 16, therefore, individuals 16 years and above are not affected by the policy while those 15 years and below are affected by the policy. A logistic regression discontinuity and chi-square tests are applied. The policy substantially increased grade 10 completion for children aged 13 to 15 as compared to children aged 16-18. This shows that the effect of the change in the compulsory education law on compulsory school completion is highly significant and positive for these marginal learners. Treatment group individuals are 7% more likely to complete lower secondary education as compared to the control group individuals. In terms of gender, no statistically significant gender differential effect is found of the increase in compulsory education. On the completion of post-compulsory school grades or high school grades (grades 11, 12, and 13), the chi-square tests of association show that the completion of grade 11 and the completion of grade 12 are significantly associated with the education policy for these marginal learners. Therefore, more individuals completed grades 11 and 12 in the treatment group (those aged 13 to 15) as compared to the control group (those aged 16 to 18). However, completion of grade 13 shows no statistically significant association with the education policy. That is, there is no change in obtaining a high school certificate. Nevertheless, the positive impact of the change in compulsory education years on grades 10 to 12 provides support for the hypothesis that favourable institutional characteristics are some of the channels through which intergenerational correlation of education can be reduced, by means of the improvement of educational attainment of children. This confirms the correlation between the compulsory years of education and the intergenerational correlation of education in Chapter 3. Children in countries with a higher number of years of compulsory education face higher intergenerational mobility in education. That is, the higher the compulsory education years the lower the intergenerational correlation of education.