The goal of this memo is to better understand how the poor behave in order to create better governmental anti-poverty policies in the Kingdom of Cambodia. To this end, I outline how poor populations make decisions regarding food, health, and education as put forth by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo in Poor Economics. After looking at Cambodia’s poverty data and its Education Strategic Plan for 2014-2018, I will make two recommendations towards reducing secondary-school dropout rates, which is vital for future productive behaviors and economic growth. First, to address the supply-side needs of the education system, I recommend the government double its spending on education, paid for by increased tax revenue collection. Second, to address
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This distorts parents’ demands, what schools deliver, and what children achieve. Banerjee and Duflo observe that parents “see education primarily as a way for their children to acquire (considerable) wealth”, usually in the form of a government job. Education is seen as a gamble instead of an investment. Even though there should not be a poverty trap, because poor parents “behave as if there were a poverty trap [they] thereby inadvertently...create one”. “Old-fashioned sociological determinism” also shapes the poor’s behavior and what they think is their place in life. In education systems in many developing countries “the curriculum and the teaching are designed for the elite rather than for the regular children who attend school” which can lead to behavior based on such stereotypes tied to class, caste, and expectations. Banerjee and Duflo observe that “at the broader, societal level, this pattern of beliefs and behaviors means that most school systems are both unfair and wasteful”.
Are governments to …show more content…
Banerjee and Duflo find that all too often “the wrong policy was chosen, not out of bad intentions or corruption, but simply because the policy makers had the wrong model of the world in mind”. At the core of this is “ideology, ignorance, and inertia” on the part of policy-makers that keeps them from addressing the poor’s behaviors and needs. Governments are not fully to blame, but they do tend to make easy things more difficult for the poor.
II. Poverty in Cambodia
Poverty data
Cambodia is a low-income economy with an GNI per capita of $1070 in 2015. In 2012, 21.58% of the population lived on less than $2 per day, down from 53.25% in 2004. Also in 2012, 17.7% of the population lived under its national poverty line and Cambodia had a Gini coefficient of 30.8. In 2015, Cambodia ranked 143 out of 188 on the HDI.
Cambodia is still recovering from the destruction of its education system by the Khmer Rouge (1975-1979), though impressive gains have been made. In 2015, literacy rates for 15-24 year olds reached 91.54%. In 2014, primary school enrollment rates were 95.3% with a 96.3% completion rate. However, in 2013, enrollment in 7th-9th grades was only 53.6% and only 27.4% for 10th-12th grades.
The Education Strategic Plan (ESP) 2014-2018: Description and
This distorts parents’ demands, what schools deliver, and what children achieve. Banerjee and Duflo observe that parents “see education primarily as a way for their children to acquire (considerable) wealth”, usually in the form of a government job. Education is seen as a gamble instead of an investment. Even though there should not be a poverty trap, because poor parents “behave as if there were a poverty trap [they] thereby inadvertently...create one”. “Old-fashioned sociological determinism” also shapes the poor’s behavior and what they think is their place in life. In education systems in many developing countries “the curriculum and the teaching are designed for the elite rather than for the regular children who attend school” which can lead to behavior based on such stereotypes tied to class, caste, and expectations. Banerjee and Duflo observe that “at the broader, societal level, this pattern of beliefs and behaviors means that most school systems are both unfair and wasteful”.
Are governments to …show more content…
Banerjee and Duflo find that all too often “the wrong policy was chosen, not out of bad intentions or corruption, but simply because the policy makers had the wrong model of the world in mind”. At the core of this is “ideology, ignorance, and inertia” on the part of policy-makers that keeps them from addressing the poor’s behaviors and needs. Governments are not fully to blame, but they do tend to make easy things more difficult for the poor.
II. Poverty in Cambodia
Poverty data
Cambodia is a low-income economy with an GNI per capita of $1070 in 2015. In 2012, 21.58% of the population lived on less than $2 per day, down from 53.25% in 2004. Also in 2012, 17.7% of the population lived under its national poverty line and Cambodia had a Gini coefficient of 30.8. In 2015, Cambodia ranked 143 out of 188 on the HDI.
Cambodia is still recovering from the destruction of its education system by the Khmer Rouge (1975-1979), though impressive gains have been made. In 2015, literacy rates for 15-24 year olds reached 91.54%. In 2014, primary school enrollment rates were 95.3% with a 96.3% completion rate. However, in 2013, enrollment in 7th-9th grades was only 53.6% and only 27.4% for 10th-12th grades.
The Education Strategic Plan (ESP) 2014-2018: Description and