Intergenerational Human Capital Spillovers: Indonesia’s School Construction and Its Effects on the Next Generation

We analyze the effects of increased access to education in one generation on human capital outcomes in the next generation. Using longitudinal data, we exploit the geographical and cohort variations in exposure to a massive primary school construction program in the 1970s in Indonesia. We show that the school building project increases primary school completion rates among both men and women. We find that children whose mothers were exposed to the school building project score higher on the national primary school examination, suggesting the importance of maternal education in the intergenerational transmission of human capital.

S'ncamtho Lexico-semantics and the Isichazamazwi sesiNdebele (ISN): Implications for Lexicography and Standardisation

S'ncamtho is an urban youth variety which uses Zimbabwean Ndebele as its matrix language. The youth language has had influences on the Ndebele language over time. This article argues that Ndebele benefits from S'ncamtho, its urban youth variety in terms of vocabulary although efforts at linguistic purism often moderate this contribution. The article avers that S'ncamtho terminology creates synonyms and polysemy in some cases whereby S'ncamtho lexis become as popular as the Ndebele counterpart and in some cases the S'ncamtho lexemes are more popular. The article goes on to evaluate the treatment of popular S'ncamtho terminology in the only Ndebele monolingual dictionary Isichazamazwi seSiNdebele (ISN) and gives recommendations on standardising some S'ncamtho terminology in Ndebele. The article is motivated in part by the debate that arose after the S'ncamtho term for prostitute umahotsha was included in a grade seven (primary school) examination. However, looking closely at S'ncamtho and Ndebele it is not linguistically and socially possible for S'ncamtho and Ndebele to share space and speakers and remain independent of each other’s influences on the other.