A new GLO Discussion Paper finds that children from two-parent families have a better chance of enrolling at all levels of education than those from single-parent families. It also confirms the critical role of mothers in children’s education.

GLO Discussion Paper No. 1033, 2022

Does Parental Absence Harm Children’s Education? Evidence from Vietnam – Download PDF
by Nguyen, Cuong Viet & Vu, Linh Hoang

GLO Fellow Cuong Nguyen

Author Abstract: This study uses a large-scale dataset from Vietnam to analyze the impacts of parental absence due to migration, death, or divorce on children’s school enrollment, for children aged from 7 to 22. We find children from two-parent families have a better chance of enrolling at all levels of education than those from single-parent families. Within single-family types, the negative effect on children of parental divorce is higher than that of parental death, while the effect of parental migration is the lowest. Comparing the effect of single-father and single-mother households, we find that children living with a single mother tend to have higher school enrollment than those living with a single father, indicating the critical role of mothers in children’s education.

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers). Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

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