TY - JOUR AU - Friedman,Willa AU - Kremer,Michael AU - Miguel,Edward AU - Thornton,Rebecca TI - Education as Liberation? JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 16939 PY - 2011 Y2 - April 2011 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16939 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16939.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Willa Friedman Department of Economics University of California at Berkeley 508-1 Evans Hall #3880 Berkeley, CA 94720-3880 E-Mail: willa@econ.berkeley.edu Michael Kremer Harvard University Department of Economics Littauer Center M20 Cambridge, MA 02138 Tel: 617/495-9145 Fax: 617/495-7730 E-Mail: mkremer@fas.harvard.edu Edward Miguel Department of Economics University of California, Berkeley 530 Evans Hall #3880 Berkeley, CA 94720 Tel: 510/642-7162 Fax: 510/642-6615 E-Mail: emiguel@econ.berkeley.edu Rebecca Thornton University of Michigan 611 Tappan St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Tel: 734-763-3720 E-Mail: rebeccal@umich.edu AB - Scholars have long speculated about education’s political impacts, variously arguing that it promotes modern or pro-democratic attitudes; that it instills acceptance of existing authority; and that it empowers the disadvantaged to challenge authority. To avoid endogeneity bias, if schooling requires some willingness to accept authority, we assess the political and social impacts of a randomized girls’ merit scholarship incentive program in Kenya that raised test scores and secondary schooling. We find little evidence for modernization theory. Consistent with the empowerment view, young women in program schools were less likely to accept domestic violence. Moreover, the program increased objective political knowledge, and reduced acceptance of political authority. However, this rejection of the status quo did not translate into greater perceived political efficacy, community participation, or voting intentions. Instead, the perceived legitimacy of political violence increased. Reverse causality may help account for the view that education instills greater acceptance of authority. ER -