# Reproductive outcomes and schooling expansion for men in Ethiopia, Malawi, and Uganda

> **NIH NIH R03** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2022 · $77,750

## Abstract

Project Summary
Since the early 1990s, large investments in schooling expansion in sub-Saharan Africa have been driven by
the removal of primary and secondary school fees. These policies increased the number of children who
have ever attended school and increased the duration of schooling. Analyses of the demographic impact of
these policies have focused on women’s reproductive outcomes and with few exceptions ignored the
question of whether educational expansion has affected the reproductive outcomes of men or shifted
spousal decision-making dynamics. This omission is problematic for several reasons. First, men have
benefitted from recent policies expanding access to schooling, in many contexts benefiting more than
women. Second, evidence from studies of couples suggests that fertility outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa
may be more closely associated with husbands’ than wives’ fertility intentions and educational attainment.
Third, the educational composition of the population shapes status differences between husbands and
wives, which influences reproductive behavior within couples.
This project builds on previous work conducted by the PI about the expansion of girls’ schooling in sub-
Saharan Africa and the causal consequences of girls’ schooling expansion for the timing of first birth and
first marriage. It explores a set of complementary analyses focused on the consequences of schooling
expansion for men. This project will use secondary data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)
from Ethiopia, Malawi, and Uganda. The first section of the project will use a two-stage least squares
(2SLS) regression to leverage the free primary education policies (FPE) implemented in these countries
and identify the causal effect of education on men’s fertility preferences, gender role attitudes, and
tolerance of intimate partner violence (Aim 1). In the second section of the project, DHS data from the
same set of countries over the period 1998-2016 will be used to examine changes over time in the
association between husbands’ and wives’ educational attainment, fertility preferences, reproductive
decision-making, and contraceptive use (Aim 2). Variations in the patterns of association across outcomes
and countries will be used to build theory about how educational attainment affects men’s demographic
outcomes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10463793
- **Project number:** 5R03HD103866-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** Monica J Grant
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $77,750
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-08-06 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10463793

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10463793, Reproductive outcomes and schooling expansion for men in Ethiopia, Malawi, and Uganda (5R03HD103866-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10463793. Licensed CC0.

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