Mitigation of Long-Term Human Capital Losses from Natural Disasters: Evidence from the Philippines

Catalina Herrera-Almanza and Ava Cas

The World Bank Economic Review, 2021, vol. 35, issue 2, 436-460

Abstract: The detrimental effects of natural disasters on human capital during childhood are well-documented. However, little is known about whether, and to what extent, these impacts can be mitigated in the long term. This study analyzes whether a school infrastructure program can mitigate the adverse effects of extreme weather shocks on long-term children's education and labor market outcomes. This article uses a triple difference model that exploits the geographic variation of super-typhoons combined with the age-cohort exposure to, and spatial variation of, a secondary school infrastructure program in the Philippines. This study finds that the school infrastructure program almost entirely mitigated the negative effect of typhoons on educational attainment. These differential effects of the program on education among typhoon-affected children are also associated with their higher likelihood of working in a high-skilled occupation, in the non-agricultural sector, and of migrating overseas.

Keywords: mitigation; human capital; natural disasters; infrastructure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/wber/lhaa001 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:wbecrv:v:35:y:2021:i:2:p:436-460.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The World Bank Economic Review is currently edited by Eric Edmonds and Nina Pavcnik

More articles in The World Bank Economic Review from World Bank Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().