stronger effect on children's health than does the education of fathers.<sup>4</sup> Better-educated mothers know more about the benefits of proper diet and hygiene; they are also more likely to seek medical care, ensure that their children are immunized, be better informed about their children's nutritional requirements, and adopt improved sanitation practices. In addition, these women may have better access to information about health care, and to be better able to process and act on the information that they acquire. As a result, infants and children of women with some formal education have higher survival rates and tend to be healthier and better nourished. A mother with a few years of formal education is also more likely to send her children to school—which in turn may improve their health, by allowing them to learn better hygiene practices.

The evidence for Sub-Saharan Africa for instance shows that children of mothers who receive five years of primary education are 40 percent more likely to live beyond age five, and educated mothers are about 50 percent more likely to immunize their children than uneducated mothers (see Morrison, Raju, and Sinha (2007)). McGuire (2006) found that the average number of schooling years for women has a statistically significant impact on the mortality rate of children under five. Kiros and Hogan (2001) for Ethiopia, Castro et al. (2006) for Guatemala, and Oloo (2005) for a larger group of developing countries, also found that female literacy tends to lower child mortality. Similarly, in a study of 47 Sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1999-2004, Anyanwu and Erhijakpor (2009) found that female literacy is significantly and negatively related to both infant and under-five mortality rates. A study that followed women for over 35 years in Guatemala showed that the benefits of mothers’ schooling for their children’s health are even greater than previously estimated from studies conducted at one point in time (Maluccio et al. (2009)). More generally, the educational attainment and cognitive development of children are positively affected by the educational attainment of parents, partly through improved health.<sup>5</sup> There are a number of other ways through which maternal education benefits children, boys and girls alike. Better educated mothers may spend more _time_ and _resources_ on children's health and education ((Brown (2006)). Behrman et al. (1999), in a study of rural India, found that literate and better-educated mothers spend more time on children's school work. Educated women tend to have fewer children, which reduces dependency ratios and thus increases (all else equal) per capita consumption within households. In their study of Brazil, Lam and Duryea (1999) found a strong negative effect of women's schooling on fertility. Brazilian women with zero years of schooling give birth to 6.5 live children; this number declines to 3 for women with 8 years of schooling. Further, they argue that the effect of schooling on fertility works primarily through increased investment (including time) in child quality. As discussed in more detail in Appendix A, educated mothers may also have greater bargaining power within the household over intra-family allocation of monetary resources, be better able to act on their preference for investing in children, and have a greater impact on family decisions regarding the allocation of children’s time to household chores

> 4See Hill and King (1995) and Glewwe (1999) for early surveys. See also Morrison, Raju, and Sinha

(2007).

> 5For evidence on the positive effect of parental schooling on children's schooling, see for instance Lam and Duryea (1999).

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