Human capital formation is a fundamental requirement for countries’ long term
economic development and societal prosper
ity. This process can b
e enhanced or disrupted
by internal
factors such as migration and remittances,
or external ones like wars. This
thesis is interested in investigating both phenomena. The following questions are
addressed: what is the impact of migran
t remittances on human capital formation, do these
private inflows induce any changes in the behavior of remittance
-
receivers towards
education expenditure, and finally what is the short term micro
-
economic effect of armed
conflicts on e
ducation in post wa
r countries.
In investigating these issues, focus is made on
two perspectives: first youth, an active group in the society whose age matches up higher
education levels and labor force entry simultaneously; second gender differentials both in
terms of impac
t and behavior. The research explores new surveys from the Middle East,
datasets that have not been analyzed previously from an education angle and that are not
generally available to researchers. These datasets come from Jordan and Lebanon, two
middle income non-oil producer countries.
The thesis is composed of three independent essays. The first examines the impact
of migrant remittances on human capital accumulation among youth in Jordan and
highlights the various ways in which remittances influence ed
ucation outcomes. The
analysis takes a gender dimension and examines whether the effects and magnitude of such
impact is different between males and females.
The second essay considers remittances
receipt, from both domestic and international sources, and
examines their impact on
Jordanian households’ education spending patterns.
Following the literature on intra
-
household bargaining and gender expenditure preferences, the analysis examines whether
such impact is potentially different between male and femal
e headed households.
The third
essay tackles the impact of the 2006 war on education attendance of youth in Lebanon. The
chapter captures households’ schooling responses in the aftermath of the war. By looking
at the implications of a diversified array of
damages sustained; reflecting physical, human,
income and employment losses; the chapter examines
possible
linkages between the nature
of the damage incurred and the manner and magnitude in which such damage affects
education.