“Household crowding and childhood educational outcomes: evidence from the young lives longitudinal study”

Abstract

This study aims to examine the relationship between overcrowding and the educational development of children in low to middle income countries. Using the Young Lives survey, a longitudinal study that investigates child poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam over a span of 15 years, we employ an identification strategy consisting of a household and time fixed effects model, with the objectives of analyzing whether there is a relationship between overcrowding and academic outcomes and whether this relationship is causal. Our findings reveal a statistically significant negative effect of increasing one person per room on math and vocabulary test scores, ranging from -0.023 to -0.037 standard deviations, for India and Vietnam using fixed effects. For Peru negative effects observed using the OLS model dissipate using fixed effects. In contrast, Ethiopia shows positive and statistically significant results for PPVT using fixed effects. These results highlight the complex and context-dependent nature of overcrowding’s impact on children’s educational outcomes.