School Fees and Rebel Demobilization: Evidence from Uganda

The government of Uganda eliminated primary school fees during the insurgency Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group notorious for abducting aged boys and girls to turn them into rebels through indoctrination intimidation. Previous research shows that no-fee policy, commonly known as Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme, increases access education mainly girls. I test hypothesis UPE incentives abducted desert LRA. Difference-in-differences estimates, which compare change in desertion age (treatment group) older females (control group), support hypothesis. Investigating possible mechanisms, find little ‘standard’ opportunity cost dominates literature, where earning opportunities regular economy thus makes staying with less attractive. Instead, evidence supports ‘novel’ has received attention far: Girls long education, prospect going – substantially entices abandon rebels.