Mother's age at marriage and gender-differential in child schooling: Evidence from Pakistan.

In this study, we provide empirical evidence in support of intergenerational effects of women's marriage age on girl-specific child education outcomes using a nationally representative household survey of 24,809 households from Pakistan. Our key findings are four-fold: First, we find that mother's age at marriage has no girl-specific impact on the education of children of school going age in terms of school enrolment, type of school (public/private) or education expenditure. However, there is a positive effect of delaying mother's marriage on girls in terms of relative grade progression and primary school attainment, implying that late-marrying mothers are more likely to transfer their human capital advantages/disadvantages to the daughters. Second, the impact does not depend on whether the child is firstborn or later-order, youngest child or with no siblings. Sex of the previous child does not affect the relationship either. Third, the beneficial impact of mother's marriage age on girls' education is visible only in the cohort of women who got married in 2000 or later. Fourth, father's marriage age is significantly associated with an increase in daughters' school enrolment and primary completion. The impact of smaller spousal age difference is also positive. These findings are robust to the use of empirical strategies and specifications that address potential endogeneity, collider bias, recall bias, sample selection and confounding factors. These findings suggest that delay in women's marriage is helping to narrow down gender disparities in education. The findings underscore the need to promote social and behavioural changes that encourage later marriages.

Perturbed nuptiality, delayed fertility: childbirth effects of Covid19.

An aspect of the Covid-19 pandemic that merits attention is its effects on marriage and childbirth. Although the direct fertility effects of people getting the virus may be minor, the impact of delayed marriages due to the first preventive lockdown, such as that imposed in Pakistan from March 14 to May 8 2020, and the closure of marriage halls that lasted till September 14 may be non-negligible. These demographic consequences are of particular import to developing countries such as Pakistan where birth rates remain high, marriage is nearly universal, and almost all child-bearing takes place within marriage. Based on historic marriage patterns, we estimate that the delay in nuptiality during the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak may affect about half of the marriages that were to take place during the year. In Pakistan, childbearing begins soon after marriage, and about 37% of Pakistani married women give birth to their first child within twelve months of marriage. A sizeable number out of these, around 400,000 annual births that occur within twelve months of the marriage, may consequently be delayed. Postponement of marriages due to the accompanying difficult economic situation and employment precariousness will accentuate this fertility effect. The net fertility impact of the Covid-19 outbreak will ultimately depend not only on the delay in marriages but also on the reproductive behavior of existing couples.

Covid-19 outbreak and the need for rice self-sufficiency in West Africa.

In the decade since the 2008 global food crisis, West African countries have made efforts to raise domestic rice production and to make the region self-sufficient. Today, West Africa produces nearly two-thirds of Africa's rice. The region's rice import dependency has fallen from nearly half of local consumption in 2010 to about 30%. In spite of this improvement, the region remains the world's second largest rice importer. The situation of Benin, Burkina Fasso, Gambia and Niger remains challenging with rice import dependency still exceeding 70%. Production in some countries has fallen even below the 2010 level due to civil strife, climatic changes and macroeconomic difficulties. Countries of the region, on average, allocate less than 5% of their budget to agriculture, less than half the share committed in the Maputo Agreement. The Covid-19 outbreak and corresponding preventive lockdowns have posed a new challenge as food supply chains were stretched; production, transportation and consumption fell sharply; and household income was affected. In addition, closure of frontiers and temporary trade disruption in major Asian rice exporters has led to increase in rice prices in the international market. In late April, rice futures rose to reach a level not surpassed since 2011. This threatens to further aggravate an already fragile food security situation in the region. The crisis again points to the need for greater efforts at the national and international level to achieve food security. West African countries will need to enhance public spending on agriculture with a greater focus on measures aimed at improving rice productivity.