This analysis is motivated by recognition that assets play a key role in reducing poverty because they can build capacity. In general, assets can be used to generate income or to enhance quality of life. Income-generating assets such as credit or home ownership help people prepare for economic shocks and acquire other assets. Quality-of-life-enhancing assets help people improve their living standards and develop agency. Examples of quality-of-life-enhancing assets include education, social capital, and durable goods.Most research on assets examines the relationship either between financial assets and poverty or between financial assets and education. An exploration of durable goods and education was the focus of this research. This study seeks to illustrate the relationship between durable goods and educational outcomes in Colombia through three different methodological approaches to modeling durable goods: inventory, attributional, and index approaches. Data come from the 2017 SABER test, a nation-wide examination that assesses reading and math skills, for fifth and ninth grade students, (N = 621,218). Students with complete durable goods information (N = 364,436) were included. We use multilevel modeling to identify the associations between having access to durable goods (inventory, attributional, and index) and academic achievement, and school attendance. Our study finds that while the index approach provides a macro-level perspective of how durable goods relate to educational outcomes; the inventory and the attributional approaches show how different types of durable goods have differential effects on education. For example, washing machines, computers, and Internet access are positively related to academic achievement and school attendance. In contrast, there is a negative association between entertainment goods (e.g., TVs, videogames, and cars) and school performance. This research added to the existing literature by using different methodological approaches to operationalize durable goods, and by expanding the geographic scope to Latin America
