Socioeconomic and demographic aspects of school enrollment and attendance in rural Botswana.

Three basic economic hypotheses concerning the impact of household demographic and socioeconomic characteristics on children's schooling in Botswana are examined. Two of these hypotheses, postulating a positive wealth effect and negative price effect on schooling are supported by the data. The best available measure of wealth, the level of education of the head of household and its probable effect on values and attitudes, was shown to have the expected positive effect on children's schooling; educated parents send more children to school and keep them there longer than uneducated parents. On the other hand, when household wealth is expressed in terms of assets, which enhance children's productivity, the apparent price effect offsets and even dominates the wealth effect at low and intermediate levels of wealth. The wealth effect appears to dominate when households are relatively well endowed in cattle. The third hypothesis, regarding the trade-off between child schooling and the number of children in the household, is rejected by the data. -from Author