The Effect of Education on Households Spending Choices and Poverty Status in Burkina Faso: Evidence from the 2009 Survey on Household Living Conditions

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Résumé

This study contributes to the overall debate on education and development, and is concerned with analyzing the effect of educationalattainment on household’s per capita spending choices, and the reaction of those spending choices on household’s poverty status in BurkinaFaso. In this formulation, a household is said to be experiencing monetary poverty if its annual per capita consumption spending is less than thepoverty line of 130,375 CFA Franc. The study uses the 2009 National Survey on Household Living Conditions, along with a Random Utility Theoryto explain household’s per capita consumption choices and poverty status. The results show that education; along with other covariates are keydeterminants of households spending choices and poverty status in Burkina Faso. In fact, compared to households with uneducated heads, thoseheaded by someone with a primary, secondary, and higher education are respectively 1.45 times, 4.13 times, and 18.04 times more likely to spenda per capita amount above the poverty threshold of 130,375 CFA franc. These results suggest that education could successfully be used as aneffective policy tool to reduce the incidence of chronic poverty in Burkina Faso.

Mots-clés

Burkina Faso; Discrete Choice; Education; Poverty; Logit