Arbeitspapier
The colonial legacy of education: Evidence from of Tunisia
We study the effect of exposure to colonial public primary education on contemporary education outcomes in Tunisia. We assemble a new data set on the location of schools with the number of pupils by origin, along with population data during the French protectorate (1881-1956). We match those with contemporary data on education at both district and individual level. We find that the exposure of local population to colonial public primary education has a long-lasting effect on educational outcomes, even when controlling for colonial investments in education. A one per cent increase in Tunisian enrolment rate in 1931 is associated with a 1.69 percentage points increase in literacy rate in 2014. Our results are driven by older generations, namely individuals who attended primary schools before the 1989/91 education reform. We suggest that the efforts undertaken by the Tunisian government after independence to promote schooling finally paid off after 40 years and overturned the effects of history.
- Sprache
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Englisch
- Erschienen in
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Series: Working Paper ; No. 411
- Klassifikation
-
Wirtschaft
Household Behavior: General
Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: Africa; Oceania
Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: Africa; Oceania
- Thema
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Colonial investment
primary education
Tunisia
- Ereignis
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (wer)
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Ben Salah, Mhamed
Chambru, Cédric
Fourati, Maleke
- Ereignis
-
Veröffentlichung
- (wer)
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University of Zurich, Department of Economics
- (wo)
-
Zurich
- (wann)
-
2022
- DOI
-
doi:10.5167/uzh-218541
- Handle
- Letzte Aktualisierung
-
12.03.2025, 06:55 MEZ
Datenpartner
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Objekttyp
- Arbeitspapier
Beteiligte
- Ben Salah, Mhamed
- Chambru, Cédric
- Fourati, Maleke
- University of Zurich, Department of Economics
Entstanden
- 2022