Human capital investment in agricultural communities: lessons from Honduras

Abstract

A recent paper by Bedi and Gaston, in estimating the returns to endogenous education in Honduras, examined the determinants of educational attainment through the use of official government statistics. This letter seeks to corroborate their findings using independently collected data and a wider selection of explanatory variables. A binary logit function is estimated using a sample of 424 rural-based individuals who have completed secondary schooling. Results, which indicate the predominance of economic factors (income and wealth) over social factors (gender, household structure, relationship with, or membership of, rural-based organizations) in the educational investment decision, offer some qualified support to the findings of Bedi and Gaston.