Education, HIV, and Early Fertility: Experimental Evidence from Kenya
Level 2 - randomized trial
Level 2 by design analogy (randomized evaluation in economics, not clinical CEBM)
OpenAlex W3124286696 · doi:10.1257/aer.20121607
What was done
Researchers evaluated a seven-year randomized intervention in Kenya testing the effects of education subsidies, a government abstinence-based HIV curriculum, and their combination on adolescent girls' school dropout, pregnancy, marriage, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
What was found
The abstract reports directional outcomes without numerical data: - Education subsidies reduced dropout, pregnancy, and marriage, but did not reduce STIs. - The government HIV curriculum alone did not reduce pregnancy or STIs. - Combining education subsidies with the curriculum reduced STIs more than subsidies alone, but reduced dropout and pregnancy less than subsidies alone.
Why it matters
The paper demonstrates that lowering educational costs directly influences key life outcomes for adolescent girls and suggests that abstinence-based curricula alone fail to curb STIs or unintended pregnancies.
Limits
The abstract provides no sample size, effect sizes, or confidence intervals. The findings reflect specific educational and social contexts in Kenya and may not directly generalize to other settings.
Cited by
- supports Increasing primary or compulsory basic schooling has a causal negative effect on fertility, but expansion of tertiary (higher) education does not have a demonstrated causal effect reducing fertility.