The next RITM Economics Seminar will take place on Monday 21 january, in Gaudemet (Jean Monnet – 54 boulevard Desgranges – 92330 Sceaux) from 12:00 to 13:00. Marin FERRY (DIAL) will present “ Did Debt Relief Initiatives help to reach the MDGs? A Focus on Education ”.

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of debt relief on education. More specifically, we assess whether debt relief provided under the Enhanced HIPC initiative impacts the probability of enrollment in primary school. We make use of individual-level data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) to differentiate children that were potentially impacted by debt relief from children who were not. By combining information on HIPCs and non-HIPCs and considering surveys before and after the HIPC initiative, we are able to identify the effect of debt relief on the within-country probability of being enrolled in primary school. Our results suggest that the HIPC initiative increases primary school enrollment, especially for girls, poor children, and children living in rural areas. These findings are robust to the inclusion of alternative covariates and specifications, and do not appear to be sample dependent.