Earthquake exposure and schooling: impacts and mechanisms

Khalifany-Ash Shidiqi (khalifany.ash@umy.ac.id), Antonio Di Paolo and Álvaro Choi (alvarochoi@ub.edu)
Additional contact information
Khalifany-Ash Shidiqi: Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta and University of Barcelona
Álvaro Choi: University of Barcelona

No 202204, AQR Working Papers from University of Barcelona, Regional Quantitative Analysis Group

Abstract: Natural disasters are a significant threat to human development. In this paper, we analyze the effects of being exposed to a strong earthquake during school age on schooling outcomes. We merge geolocated data about the intensity of the shock at the district level with individual information from the Indonesia Family Life Survey. The identification strategy exploits variation in exposure to the natural shock by birth cohort and district of residence, considering as the treated group individuals who were residing in affected districts while they were in school age. Earthquake exposure reduces years of schooling by somewhat less than one year and negatively affects the probability of completing compulsory education but does not alter the chances of enrolling into postcompulsory education. Falsification analysis and several robustness checks corroborate the causal interpretation of our findings. The analysis of the potential mechanisms indicates that induced migration and casualties occurring at the family level as a consequence of the earthquake do not seem to play a relevant role. However, damages in educational infrastructures do represent a relevant channel through which natural disasters harm human capital formation. Part of the overall impact of the earthquake represents a delay in schooling progression, but a substantial share of its effect consists in a permanent loss of human capital among affected individuals..

Keywords: Natural disasters; Earthquake; Schooling; Educational infrastructures. JEL classification: I25; I24; O15; Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2022-05, Revised 2022-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-env, nep-sea and nep-ure
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http://www.ub.edu/irea/working_papers/2022/202206.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Earthquake exposure and schooling: Impacts and mechanisms (2023)
Working Paper: Earthquake exposure and schooling: impacts and mechanisms (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aqr:wpaper:202204

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