Sulaiman, Munshi
(2012)
Social protection and human capital accumulation in
developing countries.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
My thesis comprises of three stand‐alone papers, which are connected by the theme of social protection
and human capital accumulation. In the first paper, using experimental data from South Sudan, I focus on
evaluating the effects of food transfer on household labour supply decisions and crowding‐out of informal
private transfers. I do not observe significant impact on either of these two domains, except reduction in
child labour. This effect corresponds with increased school enrolment of children. I find that positive
income shocks from short‐term food transfers induced the households to invest in durable goods, and child
‘non‐work’ is a luxury good for the ultra‐poor. The second paper evaluates the effects of a policy related to
exam standard on labour market performance of secondary school graduates in Bangladesh. Using a
natural experiment, the paper shows that lowering standard reduced labour market returns for the
graduates. General equilibrium effects of increased supply of graduates and lower human capital
accumulation due to lower standard have been identified as possible mechanisms underlying this labour
market effect. In my third paper, I evaluate the effects of an asset transfer programme for the ultra‐poor in
Bangladesh on children’s enrolment. I find that despite exceptionally large positive impact on household
income, asset transfer did not increase enrolment rates. Moreover, there was increased demand for child
labour in these households. The evidence suggests that asset transfer may not be sufficient to increase
school enrolment among households in extreme poverty and may have unintended effects on child labor.
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