Educational Attainment, and the Joint Outcomes of Employment and Consumption in Burkina Faso: A Semi-Parametric Bivariate Modeling Approach

Abstract

With UN member states formally adopting the Education 2030 Agenda through the Incheon Declaration, comes the need to evaluate the effect of education on the joint outcomes of employment and consumption for each member state, so as to get a clear picture of its value as an effective policy leverage for sustainable development in the country. To this end, this paper looks at the effects of educational attainment on the two key aspects of consumer behavior (labor force participation, and consumption spending) in Burkina Faso, using a Semi-parametric Bivariate modeling approach, and data from the National Survey on Household Living Conditions. The results show that not only is the semi-parametric modeling approach methodologically innovative because it deals with the simultaneity of labor force participation and consumption spending using conventional systems of two equations, with non-linear covariates' effects using spline approach, and non-normal bivariate distribution using copula functions; it also performs better than the classic Heckman two-step estimator based on the AIC and BIC criterion. Most importantly, it is found that a typical head of household's education level plays a positive and significant role in his/her likely participation in the labor market, and also Simultaneously contributes to higher household's per-capita food consumption and non-food consumption spending in burkina faso. Moreover, the positive and significant correlation coefficients between labor force participation and consumption spending on food and non-food items, suggest that the assumption of joint occurrence of the two processes is important. This assumption leads to a more accurate account of the effects of education and that of the other covariates in the system. Overall, the results do support the importance of education as an effective policy leverage for fighting against food insecurity and poverty in burkina faso, although care must be taken to reduce the disparities between rural and urban areas.