Impact of Education on Household’s Poverty Reduction in Afghanistan

Abstract

Poverty and income inequality is widespread across Afghanistan, since the country has gone through many socio-economic upheavals along the history. This study conducted to investigate what factors contribute to the poverty and which strategies can be used in order to alleviate poverty rate in Afghanistan. Thus, the study tends to examine the impact of education on household’s poverty reduction using secondary pooled data for the period of 2016 to 2019 in Afghanistan. Moreover, a number of demographic and socio-economic factors also considered to the model that might impact on household poverty. Data were collected through a national household survey by Asia Foundation. Probit regression model was applied for identifying the relationship between household’s individual education level and their poverty status. The result highlights that there is a negative and significant relationship between individuals education level and their poverty status. More precisely, one more year of education reduce the probability of living in poverty by 0.007 unit for an individual within the households in Afghanistan. Furthermore, being employed, land ownership, access to electricty and internet, living in big households, and belonging to Pashtun and Uzbek ethinicities, also reduce the probability of poverty for individuals Whlie, living in rurals, being female, and Hazara ethinicty increase the chances of poverty for them based on this study’s result. In order to improve education system and reduce poverty rate, the governmrnt should ensure secure educational environemnt and invest more on increase of educational institutions and quality of education throughout the country.