Legal Bans, Female Genital Cutting, and Education: Evidence from Senegal.

This article examines the impact of Senegal’s 1999 law banning female genital cutting (FGC) on the prevalence of the practice and educational investments in girls. Using data from multiple waves of the Senegalese Demographic and Health Surveys and a difference-in-differences approach comparing ethnic groups with varying FGC prevalence, the study finds that the law significantly reduced FGC rates—by about 25 percent in highly affected groups—and increased the likelihood that girls would attend school, particularly at the extensive margin (i.e., initiating education). The analysis rules out alternative explanations such as changes in health, empowerment, or child marriage, and suggests that some parents may have substituted FGC with educational investments to offset reduced bride prices linked to uncut daughters in marriage markets. While the law had limited effects on the duration of schooling beyond the first years, these findings highlight the potential of legal bans on harmful cultural practices to reduce FGC and indirectly promote girls’ human capital accumulation, especially in contexts where FGC influences marriage market dynamics.