96th International Atlantic Economic Conference; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Conference: 96th International Atlantic Economic Conference; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
October 5 – 8, 2023

Presentation: “Impact of Female Genital Cutting on Education and Social Norms: Evidence from Benin”

On October 6th, 2023, I presented my paper titled “The impact of female genital cutting on education and social norms: evidence from Benin” in the Health, Welfare and Inequality session at the International Atlantic Economic Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The presentation was twenty minutes followed by five minutes of feedback from my discussant Olivia Finan who is a PhD candidate at the University College Dublin. Lastly, there was a few minutes of questions from the audience. Overall, the audience and discussant thought that my research question was well defined and answered with the appropriate econometric method. Olivia provided both positive and constructive comments to improve the paper. She said that the writing was very clear and easy to understand to a non-expert. The literature review was thorough and provided readers will all relevant information about previous studies regarding female genital cutting (FGC), bans, and implications. The empirical strategy was clearly defined and followed new developments in the difference-in-difference literature. The audience and discussant suggested to explain “Why Benin?” They wanted to know what makes Benin different than Egypt and Senegal where there were other studies on the effect of anti-FGC campaigns and legal bans respectively. I explained verbally the institutional differences between the Beninese and Senegalese legal bans, but I need to add this information to the paper. I will investigate other cultural differences between these two countries that might affect whether this ban was enforced and then add this information to the paper. The “Why Benin” question will be helpful to differentiate my paper from the other studies on FGC. 

An econometrician, following the talk, asked me whether I included ethnicitytime trends and department-time trends in the regression analysis. Including these trends in the analysis would account for any ethnicity and departmental changes over time. I will include this as a robustness check in the paper to (hopefully) support the results from the main specification. Professor Divya Balasubramaniam asked if I had looked at the effect of the ban on a woman’s child’s height-to-age ratio and weight-toage ratio since it would show if the ban also benefit’s the next generation. The data is available in some rounds of the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) in certain countries. I need to look in the code book to determine if these ratios for Benin in the 2011 and 2017 rounds of the DHS. If the ratios are available, I would include the ratios as outcome variables in the regression analysis, and the results would be added to the health mechanism table. The audience and discussant said that my research is strong, and with the addition of their few comments, the paper would be ready to be submitted to a journal for publication. Thus, my next steps are addressing their suggestions and adding results to my paper. I will then send my paper to a few professors in the Economics department at Notre Dame for comments. After making edits and improvements based on comments, I will decide where to submit my paper for publication. 

Another outcome of the conference is the possibility to work with Olivia on projects in the future. While this is not directly related to my FGC paper, it could be a fruitful co-authorship in the future. Olivia’s presented paper was on the intergenerational effects of the Sierra Leone civil war. I am also interested in long run effects of political institutions and violence, so we decided to exchange contact information. We both have busy semesters this fall, so we will meet over the winter break to discuss research ideas that we could work together on. The conference provided great feedback and ways to improve on my paper and possible future co-authorships which will improve my research and career in the long run. I think it was beneficial to attend this conference for these reasons, to network, and to learn how to present in a shorter time frame.