Oil and ethnic inequality in Nigeria

James Fenske and Igor Zurimendi

No 2015-02, CSAE Working Paper Series from Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford

Abstract: Oil prices experienced in early life predict differential adult outcomes across Nigerian ethnic groups. Our difference-in-difference approach compares members of southern ethnicities to other Nigerians from the same birth cohort. Greater prices in a southern individual’s birth year predict positive relative outcomes, including reduced fertility, delayed marriage, higher probabilities of working and having a skilled occupation, and greater schooling. By contrast, health outcomes suffer, including reduced height and increased BMI. These microeconomic impacts can be explained by macroeconomic responses to greater oil prices. Relative Southern incomes increase, food production declines, maternal labor intensifies, and Southern conflict rises.

Keywords: Commodity prices; conflict; early life; ethnicity; Nigeria (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I15 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-ene
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Journal Article: Oil and ethnic inequality in Nigeria (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:csa:wpaper:2015-02

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