Webinar: Female Education in Iran: the Effect of a University Admission Ban

Series

Brown Bag Seminars General Economics
Field

Macroeconomics

Location

Online
Date and time

June 24, 2020
14:00 - 15:00

We study the effect of an Iranian education policy that restricts access to higher education for women. The policy was implemented between 2012 and 2014 in 36 universities which recently got a new government appointed president. It consisted of banning admission for women in 77 subjects, in particular in sciences and engineering. In our analysis, we exploit the spatial variation of exposure to the policy. Exposure of (potential) students to the policy depends on the geographic proximity of their residence to universities that participated in this policy. We find that the policy has a negative effect on higher education for women, and a positive effect for men. Additionally, we investigate the effects of the policy on other outcomes, such as marriage rates, fertility, labour force participation and occupational outcomes joint with Anna Baiardi and Julian Emami Namini