Peer effects and textbooks in African primary education

Textbooks could be a cheap and efficient input to primary school education in Africa. In this paper, we examine the effects of textbooks on student outcomes and separate between direct effects and externalities. Using the rich data set provided by the ‘Program on the Analysis of Education Systems’ (PASEC) for five Francophone, sub-Saharan African countries, this paper goes beyond the estimation of direct effects of textbooks on students' learning and focuses on peer effects resulting from textbooks owned by students' classmates. Using nonparametric estimation methods, we separate the direct effect of textbooks from their peer effect. The latter clearly dominates but depends upon the initial level of textbook availability.

Research Highlights▶ This study estimates nonparametrically the effects of textbooks in Francophone African primary education. ▶ Textbooks turn out to have a large externality on other classmates. ▶ Externality on classmates is much larger than the own effect, but only because classes are so large. ▶ Effects of textbooks are larger for French than for Math. ▶ The externalities of textbooks are mildly nonlinear.