Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP12811
Authors: Nuno Palma; Jaime Brown Reis
Abstract: Do countries with less democratic forms of government necessarily have lower literacy rates as a consequence? Using a random sample of more than 9000 individuals from military archives in 20th century Portugal, we show that 20-year old males were 50% more likely to end up literate under a nondemocratic regime than under a more democratic one. Our results are robust to controlling for a host of factors including economic growth, the disease environment, and regional fixed-effects. We argue for a political economy and cultural explanation for the relative success of the authoritarian regime in promoting basic education.
Keywords: Anthropometrics; Economic History of Education; Public Schooling Provision; Political Economy of Development
JEL Codes: H41; I24; I25; N33; N34; O12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| cultural alignment and political economy factors (O17) | literacy rates among 20-year-old males (J89) |
| regime's alignment with population's cultural values (P26) | literacy rates among 20-year-old males (J89) |
| nondemocratic regime (Estado Novo) (P16) | literacy rates among 20-year-old males (J89) |
| regime change from democratic to nondemocratic (O17) | literacy rates among 20-year-old males (J89) |
| individual stature (Z13) | literacy rates among 20-year-old males (J89) |
| economic growth (O49) | literacy rates among 20-year-old males (J89) |
| school density (I20) | literacy rates among 20-year-old males (J89) |