Locust Infestations and Individual School Dropout: Evidence from Africa

Abigail, O. Asare (), Bernhard Dannemann and Erkan Goeren ()
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Abigail, O. Asare: University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics
Erkan Goeren: University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Erkan Gören

No V-440-23, Working Papers from University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper examines the effect of desert locust infestations on school enrollment of children and young adults between 3 and 24 years of age. We combine individual and household survey data from the 2005-2019 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program with data on the spatial distribution of locust events in Africa. We show that months of exposure to locust infestations have a negative and statistically significant impact on individual schooling status. We find that individuals from farming households are affected more negatively by locust infestations than individuals from non-farming households. We also find that individuals from poorer farming households have a higher school dropout rate than individuals from wealthier farming households, highlighting the role of negative income shocks as a possible transmission mechanism for the effects of desert locust events. Our results also show that the estimated effect is amplified by the household’s head educational status. A series of additional robustness tests further corroborate our main findings. We provide a quantitative assessment of the impact of a permanent 1.5 C rise in global temperature on the frequency of locust events and possible implications for schooling outcomes over time. The results show that a 1.5 C rise in temperature will decrease accumulated years of schooling by about 1.2 years over a period of 10 years.

Keywords: Desert Locust; Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program; School Enrollment; Income Shocks; Current Schooling; Farmers; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-02, Revised 2023-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-hea and nep-ure
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Published in Oldenburg Working Papers V-440-23

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