Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/256804 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 411
Publisher: 
University of Zurich, Department of Economics, Zurich
Abstract: 
We study the effect of exposure to colonial public primary education on contemporary education outcomes in Tunisia. We assemble a new data set on the location of schools with the number of pupils by origin, along with population data during the French protectorate (1881-1956). We match those with contemporary data on education at both district and individual level. We find that the exposure of local population to colonial public primary education has a long-lasting effect on educational outcomes, even when controlling for colonial investments in education. A one per cent increase in Tunisian enrolment rate in 1931 is associated with a 1.69 percentage points increase in literacy rate in 2014. Our results are driven by older generations, namely individuals who attended primary schools before the 1989/91 education reform. We suggest that the efforts undertaken by the Tunisian government after independence to promote schooling finally paid off after 40 years and overturned the effects of history.
Subjects: 
Colonial investment
primary education
Tunisia
JEL: 
D10
N37
N47
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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