Article: Formal education and the contemporaneous dynamics of literacy, labour market participation and poverty reduction in Burkina Faso Journal: International Journal of Education Economics and Development (IJEED) 2019 Vol.10 No.2 pp.148 - 172 Abstract: This research examines the link between education and sustainable development in Burkina Faso. We achieve this using data on 10,411 households from the 2014 National Survey on Household Living Conditions, and a statistical methodology based on fully parametric and semi-parametric recursive trivariate probit modelling. The results show that our embraced systemic approach is economically and statistically significant as shown by the 95% confidence intervals on the three correlation coefficients in the model. Furthermore, education is found to raise literacy skills by a factor of 2.233 for primary and 3.877 for secondary education. However, an improvement in literacy skills paradoxically reduces (−0.682) the likelihood of active labour market participation. Simultaneously however, active labour market participation is found to reduce (−1.384) the incidence of households' poverty. Therefore, to boost productivity, reduce poverty and achieve sustained economic growth, in addition to new industrial policies for structural transformation of the national economy, policy makers in Burkina Faso should consider education and minimum wage reforms to incentivise high skilled labour force participation in the local labour market. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Formal education and the contemporaneous dynamics of literacy, labour market participation and poverty reduction in Burkina Faso

Authors: Ibrahim Niankara; Rachidatou Ingrid Traoret

Addresses: College of Business, Al Ain University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 112612, Abu Dhabi, UAE ' Department of Economics, New Dawn University (Université Aube Nouvelle), Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Abstract: This research examines the link between education and sustainable development in Burkina Faso. We achieve this using data on 10,411 households from the 2014 National Survey on Household Living Conditions, and a statistical methodology based on fully parametric and semi-parametric recursive trivariate probit modelling. The results show that our embraced systemic approach is economically and statistically significant as shown by the 95% confidence intervals on the three correlation coefficients in the model. Furthermore, education is found to raise literacy skills by a factor of 2.233 for primary and 3.877 for secondary education. However, an improvement in literacy skills paradoxically reduces (−0.682) the likelihood of active labour market participation. Simultaneously however, active labour market participation is found to reduce (−1.384) the incidence of households' poverty. Therefore, to boost productivity, reduce poverty and achieve sustained economic growth, in addition to new industrial policies for structural transformation of the national economy, policy makers in Burkina Faso should consider education and minimum wage reforms to incentivise high skilled labour force participation in the local labour market.

Keywords: formal education; labour market participation; literacy; poverty; SGDs; trivariate probit; Burkina Faso.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEED.2019.098679

International Journal of Education Economics and Development, 2019 Vol.10 No.2, pp.148 - 172

Accepted: 03 Oct 2018
Published online: 29 Mar 2019 *

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Title: Formal education and the contemporaneous dynamics of literacy, labour market participation and poverty reduction in Burkina Faso

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