Poverty Trap Due To Education



==A poverty trap due to education == Based on the information presented by Banerjee and Duflo, in Poor Economics, a poverty trap due to education exists. Part of the reason for this poverty trap comes from the combination of two factors, “high ambition” and “low expectations”. “High ambition” is parents’ unrealistically high expectations for the future returns of their children’s education. “Low expectations”, on the other hand, describes the limited prospects parents and teachers expect for impoverished children. The combination of these two factors creates a self-imposed poverty trap.[1]

Banerjee and Duflo also find, however, that there are real correlations between income and education. First, the amount of money invested in a child’s education is partially determined by the income of the parents; the poorest people can least afford to spend their own money their children’s education. Second, the number of years of education that a child receives influences their income later in life. Because of these two facts, children of the poorest parents are less likely to be educated, regardless of their potential, and will most likely earn less over the course of a lifetime. Considering the relationship between years of additional schooling and increased future earnings, these poorer and consequently often minimally educated children will be less able to provide for the education of the next generation while supporting families of their own. This is another causal factor of the poverty trap.

Evidence from several trials in Indonesia, the U.S., Taiwan, and Malawi, shows the positive effects of education including increased income, decreased mortality, and reduced likelihood of pregnancy in school-aged girls. As children are prevented from getting a good education due to poverty, they are also unlikely to be able to escape poverty in the future due to the lack of that good education. This is the real poverty trap due to education. This fact, along with the self-imposed poverty trap created by high ambition and low expectations, creates a poverty trap that is influenced by external circumstances and by cultural expectations.

[1] Banerjee, A., and Duflo, E. Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. New York: PublicAffairs/Perseus Books Group, 2011. 92. Print.