The multigenerational impacts of educational expansion: Evidence from Vietnam

Abstract

We investigate the multigenerational effects of a primary school expansion program in Vietnam. In the directly affected generation, the expansion increases educational attainment, literacy, non-agricultural economic activity, earnings and the intergenerational educational mobility. It increases human capital investments in the children of the directly affected generation, with increased educational expenditures, school enrollment, and health investments, and a reduction in child labor. Moreover, the expansion improves health in old age of the parents of the directly affected generation, an effect that seems to operate through increased financial resources, access to private health insurance and reduced alcohol consumption.