educational attainment causally impacts health, parenting, and other aspects of life, producing both private and social benefits (Oreopoulos and Salvanes 2011). Across several countries where studies have been completed, perpetrators of crime, mostly men, have lower levels of completed education than the general population, and in a cross-country panel analysis, the rate of secondary completion in particular is strongly negatively correlated to violent crime rates (Chioda 2013). Chioda (2013) reviews the evidence from well-identified studies of the effects of increased schooling on crime, showing that measures that increase time spent in school, years of schooling, and the quality of schooling can all reduce crime in the short and long run.

# **3. Exploration of the causes of dropout before completing upper secondary school**

As shown in Table 1, countries in Central America differ in the segment of secondary where dropout takes place. Therefore, as discussed in the conceptual framework above, the reasons for dropout are likely to vary from country to country, as well as along the schooling trajectory. A relevant source of information for understanding the causes of dropout is found in the same household surveys used so far, as most of them directly ask youth who have left the education system to register the main reasons why they decided to leave school.<sup>15</sup> Figure 13 summarizes the self-reported causes for individuals of secondary school attendance age for the five Central American countries for which household surveys report this indicator. We have grouped the answers into five categories, comprising _economic_ factors (related to having to work, insufficient family or personal income for investing in education, not enough resources for travelling to school or to purchase materials, etc., and poverty), _personal_ factors (sickness, having to perform household responsibilities, pregnancy, marriage, etc.), _not interested_ in studying (which includes categories such as “dislikes school”, “considers what schools teach to be irrelevant”, “thinks that what is learned in school is not relevant”, etc.), no _access_ to education services, and _other_ reasons that are not included in the previous categories.

In four of the five countries, the reason that most youth indicate as the primary cause for having dropped out is that they were not interested in studying: 37, 40, 41, and 47 percent report this as the main cause in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama, respectively. The second leading cause cited by youth is the lack of economic resources to continue attending school, with percentages around 25 percent in all five countries. Honduras stands out as the only country where the majority of youth reports economic causes as the main factor, with 53 percent, while only 29 percent express that lack of interest in studying is the main reason.

The importance of personal reasons varies from 11 percent in Costa Rica, to 20-21 percent in Panama and El Salvador. Access to education services is reported as the main cause by a relatively low share: in Nicaragua, 8 percent of youth out of school report that the reason why they do not attend is because the service is not available, while in Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, and

> 15 It should be mentioned that these are self-reported causes, and that a multiple choice format with pre-defined alternatives is provided for the answer. All possible reasons for dropout are not included, and the response is based on each young person ́s perception of the cause of dropout, and also on their understanding of the meaning of the multiple choices provided for the answer.

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