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Long-Run Effects of Rainfall Shocks: An evaluation of the effects of in utero negative rainfall shocks on children's cognitive ability in rural Kenya

Mattisson, Linn LU (2018) NEKP01 20181
Department of Economics
Abstract
Shocks in utero can have lasting effects on an individual's physical and socio-economic outcomes. By merging direct rainfall data at the district-level with an individual-level dataset on children's education and socio-economic factors I create a proxy for in utero income shock with negative rainfall to evaluate the effect on Kenyan children's cognitive score in rural districts. I find that a drought leads to a decrease of 2.60% of the standard deviation fall in children's cognitive score. These results are robust for gender and age, as well as the definition of the shock and rural districts. The result suggests that policies aimed at protecting rural households against shocks and alleviating their effects could save large amounts in... (More)
Shocks in utero can have lasting effects on an individual's physical and socio-economic outcomes. By merging direct rainfall data at the district-level with an individual-level dataset on children's education and socio-economic factors I create a proxy for in utero income shock with negative rainfall to evaluate the effect on Kenyan children's cognitive score in rural districts. I find that a drought leads to a decrease of 2.60% of the standard deviation fall in children's cognitive score. These results are robust for gender and age, as well as the definition of the shock and rural districts. The result suggests that policies aimed at protecting rural households against shocks and alleviating their effects could save large amounts in social costs in the long run. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Mattisson, Linn LU
supervisor
organization
course
NEKP01 20181
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Rainfall, drought, education, in utero shock, Kenya
language
English
id
8947399
date added to LUP
2018-07-03 13:36:16
date last changed
2018-07-03 13:36:16
@misc{8947399,
  abstract     = {{Shocks in utero can have lasting effects on an individual's physical and socio-economic outcomes. By merging direct rainfall data at the district-level with an individual-level dataset on children's education and socio-economic factors I create a proxy for in utero income shock with negative rainfall to evaluate the effect on Kenyan children's cognitive score in rural districts. I find that a drought leads to a decrease of 2.60% of the standard deviation fall in children's cognitive score. These results are robust for gender and age, as well as the definition of the shock and rural districts. The result suggests that policies aimed at protecting rural households against shocks and alleviating their effects could save large amounts in social costs in the long run.}},
  author       = {{Mattisson, Linn}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Long-Run Effects of Rainfall Shocks: An evaluation of the effects of in utero negative rainfall shocks on children's cognitive ability in rural Kenya}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}