Publication Date

5-15-2012

Summary

Households play an important role in youth’s academic achievement. Household assets as part of youth’s family background have been found to have a significant impact on youth’s academic achievement. In this study, the impact of household possessions on youth’s academic achievement in the Ghana YouthSave experiment is investigated. Findings support the hypothesized positive direction of the impact of household possessions on academic achievement of youth. Using propensity score optimal matching and matching estimators, results show youth from households that reported owning at least one of the five household items measured scored almost 1 unit higher on English than their peers from households that do not own any. However, results indicate ownership of household possessions do not have a statistically significant impact on Math scores of youth in the Ghana YouthSave experiment. Although the impact of ownership of household possessions on English scores is consistent across different tests used in this study, the impact of ownership of household possessions on Math scores is less conclusive. Policy implications are discussed.

Document Type

Working Paper

Category

Financial Inclusion

Subarea

Global Asset Building

Notes

Subsequent publication: Chowa, G. A. N., Masa, R. D., Wretman, C., & Ansong, D. (2013). The impact of household possessions on youth’s academic achievement in the Ghana YouthSave experiment: A propensity score analysis. Economics of Education Review, 33, 69–81. doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2012.08.005

Original Citation

Chowa, G. A. N., Masa, R. D., Wretman, C. J., & Ansong, D. (2012). The impact of household possessions on youth's academic achievement in the Ghana YouthSave experiment: A propensity score analysis (CSD Working Paper No. 12-17). St. Louis, MO: Washington University, Center for Social Development.

Project

YouthSave

Keywords

household possessions, assets, Ghana, academic achievement, Assets and Education Symposium, youth savings, YouthSave

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