• The Impact of Universal Secondary Education on Female Wealth in Uganda

In 1996, 48.5% of the Ugandan population lived below the poverty line, with the rural population accounting for over 80% of this figure (UBoS, 2002). Works by Mankiw et al. (1992) and Barro (1991), demonstrated that the only way to increase the wealth of poor countries and bring them into line with rich ones, was to have a high human capital per person in relation to GDP per capita. Consequently, UNESCO, the World Bank and the UN all lauded education as the solution to eradicate poverty. However, whilst education may be the solution to eradicate poverty, the paradox is that poverty acts as the largest barrier for children and adults in obtaining education, due to the high financial and opportunity costs that are incurred when attending school. Furthermore, this is a burden that weighs particularly heavily on the female population, with studies from Watkins (1999) and Assie-Lumbamba (2000) demonstrating that when faced with credit constraints, parents give boys precedence over girls when deciding which child to send to school. To overcome this problem, the Ugandan government became the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to implement Universal Secondary Education (USE).

This paper investigates the impact of USE in Uganda, implemented in 2007, on the average years of female education. By treating the implementation of USE as a natural experiment, the study will examine the causal relationship between female secondary schooling and wealth in Uganda. To analyse this, a fuzzy regression discontinuity design (RDD) is employed using 2018-2019 DHS data, consisting of 8,868 observations from 15 regions in Uganda. The findings show that USE successfully increased the average years of schooling, but only for women living in a rural settlement. Furthermore, the increased schooling effectuated by USE resulted in higher female wealth.