Parental Disability and Children’s Educational Outcomes: Evidence from Tanzania

This paper examines the relationship between parental disability and children's educational outcomes in Tanzania. This paper uses data from the 2010–2011 and 2014–2015 waves of the Tanzania National Panel Survey (TNPS) and a fixed effects estimation approach. The findings of this paper show that parental disability is associated with children being less likely to enrol in school and pass examinations. Also, we find a negative association between parental disability and the hours that children spend on their studies. However, we find no statistically significant association between parental disability and grades completed by children. We identify higher medical expenditures, lower educational expenditures and higher hours spent collecting firewood and fetching water as the potential mechanisms through which parental disability is negatively associated with children's educational outcomes.