Quantity and Quality of Children : Fertility and Educational Investment in South Africa

2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21830058
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Applied economics
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: ITO Takahiro Osaka University, 社会経済研究所, 特任助教 (20547054)
• Project Period (FY): 2009 – 2010
• Keywords: 教育投資 / 出生行動 / 医療政策 / 南アフリカ

Research Abstract

This study investigates the impact of the health policy reform in South Africa. The policy reform was implemented in 1994 and removed all user fees from health services to pregnant mothers and children under 6 years old. The regression analysis shows that households in the high treatment regions have less children and give their children educated more, compared with the regions appeared to be less affected by the policy reform. Considering that our control group is not regions completely unaffected by the reform but regions affected to some extent, the true impact of the policy reform would be larger.