Determinants of Household Education Expenditure in Uganda: Do the Poor Spend More on Education than the Rich?

Abstract

This study estimates the Tobit and IV Tobit models using data from the Uganda
National Household Survey (UNHS) 2019/20 to analyse factors that influence
household education spending, and examine the impact of different income groups on
education spending in Uganda. The findings show a positive relationship between
household income on the one hand; and the level of education of the head of household,
household size, urban residence, female-headed household and education spending on
the other. Furthermore, higher-income households are found to have a high-income
elasticity of demand than low-income households. An increase in total household income
for high-income quintile households is found to increase educational expenditures by a
percentage point than for low-income quintile households. Due to this disparity, the
government is advised to revise its cost-sharing approach to public education spending,
which needs to be supplemented by household education spending.
JEL Classification: D1, I21, I22, I24, C24, R20