The National Education System Plan, implemented in 1971, reshaped the education system of Nepal and increased access to education among females. I use this dramatic change in Nepal’s education system as a quasi-natural experiment to identify the effect of maternal literacy skills and highest level of schooling on infant and child mortality outcomes. The results suggest that the reform improved educational attainment among females of school-going age during the time of the reform but had no effect on males’ educational attainment. Using within-cohort and across-district variations in educational outcomes due to the reform, I find that one more year of maternal schooling reduces the under-5 mortality rate by 4.5 percentage points.

中文翻译：

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孕产妇基本扫盲技能可以改善婴儿健康状况吗？尼泊尔《教育法》的证据

1971年实​​施的《国家教育系统计划》改变了尼泊尔的教育系统，并增加了女性获得教育的机会。我将尼泊尔教育系统中的这一戏剧性变化作为一种​​准自然实验来确定孕产妇读写能力和最高学历对婴儿和儿童死亡率的影响。结果表明，该改革在改革期间提高了适龄女性的受教育程度，但对男性的受教育程度没有影响。根据改革后的人群内部和跨地区教育结果的变化，我发现，一年的产妇上学时间会使5岁以下儿童的死亡率降低4.5个百分点。