Keeping Children in School: Household and District-level Determinants of School Dropout in 363 Districts of 30 Developing Countries

Household and district-level determinants of school dropout are studied for 130,000 children in 363 districts of 30 developing countries using multi-level discrete-time event history analysis. School dropout is influenced by socio-economic and demographic household characteristics and characteristics of the available educational facilities, like number of teachers and distance to school. Other relevant context characteristics that encourage staying in school are a higher level of development and the presence of whitecollar jobs in the district. Strong indications are found that children postpone dropping out until after finishing primary education and that prolonging the duration of primary education may increase the likelihood they stay longer in school. Interaction analysis shows that many effects of household-level factors depend on the context in which the household is living.