Gold mining and education: a long-run resource curse in Africa?

Pelle Ahlerup (), Thushyanthan Baskaran and Arne Bigsten ()
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Pelle Ahlerup: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: P.O.Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG, Sweden, http://www.economics.gu.se

No 666, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: We provide micro-level evidence on an important channel through which mineral resources may adversely affect development in the long-run: lower educational attainment. Combining Afrobarometer survey data with geocoded data on the discovery and shutdown dates of of gold mines, we show that respondents who had a gold mine within their district when they were in adolescence have significantly lower educational attainment. These results are robust to the omission of individual countries, different definitions of adulthood, the use of alternative data from the Development and Health Surveys (DHS), and buffer-based approaches to define neighborhood. Regarding mechanisms, we conclude that the educational costs of mines are likely due to households making myopic educational decisions when employment in gold mining is an alternative. We explore and rule out competing mechanism such as endogenous migration, a lower provision of public goods by the government, and a higher propensity for violent conflicts in gold mining districts.

Keywords: Education; mineral resources; gold mining; survey data; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D74 H70 O10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 pages
Date: 2016-06, Revised 2017-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-dev
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Gold Mining and Education: A Long-run Resource Curse in Africa? (2020)
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