The impact of household possessions on youth's academic achievement in the Ghana Youthsave experiment: A propensity score analysis

Household assets as part of youth's family background have been found to have a significant impact on youth's academic achievement. In this study, the impact of household possessions on youth's academic achievement in the Ghana YouthSave experiment is investigated. Findings support the hypothesized positive direction of the impact of household possessions on academic achievement of youth. Results show youth from households that reported owning at least one of the five household possessions scored almost one unit higher on English than their peers from households that do not own any. However, results indicate ownership of household possessions does not have a statistically significant impact on Math scores of youth. Consistent with prior studies, this study presents evidence of the importance of family economic background, particularly asset ownership, on youth's academic achievement. Policy implications are discussed.

► We investigated the relationship between ownership of household possessions and academic achievement of Ghanaian youth.
► We used propensity score analysis to correct for the effects of selection bias based on available covariates.
► Youth from households with household possessions scored nearly one unit higher on English than their peers from households without household possessions.
► We did not find a statistically significant impact of ownership of household possessions on Math scores.