Resumen de Essays on gender, development and human capital investment
This dissertation comprises three chapters on the intersection between gender, development and human capital investments. The first chapter explores the impact of the rapid expansion of the Cambodian garment industry on women’s and children’s well being. It documents a sizeable increase in schooling at early ages, but also increased secondary dropouts. It also demonstrates that the growth of garment manufacturing is associated with delays in marriage and childbearing, and potentially long-lasting improvements in girls’ height. The second chapter uses a natural experiment from an Australian state and shows that relaxing compulsory mathematics and science requirements widens the gender gap in high-school STEM subject uptake. It also documents a positive externality from compulsory mathematics requirements on the uptake of science subjects, which is consistent with a setting in which it is costly to study science without any mathematics. The third chapter presents evidence that the growth of private primary schooling may have negative implications for equality in educational opportunities and learning outcomes in rural India.
