Religion and educational mobility in Africa.

The African people and leaders1,2 have long seen education as a driving force of development and liberation, a view shared by international institutions3,4, as schooling has large economic and non-economic returns, particularly in low-income settings5. In this study, we examine the educational progress across faiths throughout postcolonial Africa, home to some of the world's largest Christian and Muslim communities. We construct comprehensive religion-specific measures of intergenerational mobility in education using census data from 2,286 districts in 21 countries and document the following. First, Christians have better mobility outcomes than Traditionalists and Muslims. Second, differences in intergenerational mobility between Christians and Muslims persist among those residing in the same district, in households with comparable economic and family backgrounds. Third, although Muslims benefit as much as Christians when they move early in life to high-mobility regions, they are less likely to do so. Their low internal mobility accentuates the educational deficit, as Muslims reside on average in areas that are less urbanized and more remote with limited infrastructure. Fourth, the Christian-Muslim gap is most prominent in areas with large Muslim communities, where the latter also register the lowest emigration rates. As African governments and international organizations invest heavily in educational programmes, our findings highlight the need to understand better the private and social returns to schooling across faiths in religiously segregated communities and to carefully think about religious inequalities in the take-up of educational policies6.

Intergenerational Mobility in Africa.

We examine intergenerational mobility (IM) in educational attainment in Africa since independence using census data. First, we map IM across 27 countries and more than 2,800 regions, documenting wide cross-country and especially within-country heterogeneity. Inertia looms large as differences in the literacy of the old generation explain about half of the observed spatial disparities in IM. The rural-urban divide is substantial. Though conspicuous in some countries, there is no evidence of systematic gender gaps in IM. Second, we characterize the geography of IM, finding that colonial investments in railroads and Christian missions, as well as proximity to capitals and the coastline are the strongest correlates. Third, we ask whether the regional differences in mobility reflect spatial sorting or their independent role. To isolate the two, we focus on children whose families moved when they were young. Comparing siblings, looking at moves triggered by displacement shocks, and using historical migrations to predict moving-families' destinations, we establish that, while selection is considerable, regional exposure effects are at play. An extra year spent in a high-mobility region before the age of 12 (and after 5) significantly raises the likelihood for children of uneducated parents to complete primary school. Overall, the evidence suggests that geographic and historical factors laid the seeds for spatial disparities in IM that are cemented by sorting and the independent impact of regions.

A dyadic approach toward the interpersonal consequences of time pressure.

Although time pressure can decisively shape employees' behavior, little remains known about the consequences associated with differing perceptions of time pressure between cooperating individuals. Hence, this investigation uses two experimental studies (across different cultural contexts) to examine the joint role of a focal individual's (i.e., an actor's) and a dyadic interaction partner's time pressure perceptions for the actor's behavior toward the partner. Results demonstrated that actors' time pressure perceptions were positively related to their time-oriented behavior (i.e., pacing and synchronizing joint activities). In Study 1 (but not Study 2), the partner's time pressure moderated this association, such that the linkage between an actor's time pressure and time-oriented behavior was more pronounced when the partner experienced lower (rather than higher) time pressure. Furthermore, across both studies, the partner's time pressure perceptions moderated the linkage between an actor's time pressure and relationship-oriented behavior (i.e., being friendly and considerate). This linkage was positive when the partner experienced high time pressure, but nonsignificant (Study 1) or even negative (Study 2) when the partner experienced low time pressure. Together, these findings advance new insights into the consequences of time pressure in cooperating dyads, illustrating that conflicting time pressure perceptions may critically influence individuals' interpersonal behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).