Women, schooling, and marriage in rural Philippines

Arbeitspapier

Using data from the Bicol region of the Phillipines, we examine why women are more educated than men in a rural, agricultural economy in which women are significantly less likely than men to participate in the labor market. We hypothesize that educational homogamy in the marriage market and cross-productivity effects in the household allow Filipino women to reap substantial benefits from schooling regardless of whether they enter the labor market. Our estimates reveal that the return to schooling for women is approximately 20 percent in both labor and marriage markets. In comparison, men experience a 12 percent return to schooling in the labor market. By using birth order, sibship size, percent of male siblings, and parental education as instruments, we correct for a significant downward bias that is caused by the endogeneity of schooling attainment.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Working Paper ; No. 701

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Analysis of Education ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
• Subject: returns to education ; gender ; marriage ; Philippines

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): DeSilva, Sanjaya ; Bin Bakhtiar, Mohammed Mehrab
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
• (where): Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
• (when): 2011

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/57070
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET