Rainfall shocks, cognitive development and educational attainment among adolescents in a drought-prone region in Kenya

Abstract

There is growing evidence that early life conditions are important for outcomes during adolescence, including cognitive development and education. Economic conditions at the time children enter school are also important. We examine these relationships for young adolescents living in a low-income drought-prone pastoral setting in Kenya using historical rainfall patterns captured by remote sensing as exogenous shocks. Past rainfall shocks measured as deviations from local long-term averages have substantial negative effects on the cognitive development and educational achievement of girls. Results for the effects of rainfall shocks on grades attained, available for both girls and boys, support that finding. Consideration of additional outcomes suggests the effects of rainfall shocks on education are due to multiple underlying mechanisms including persistent effects on the health of children and the wealth of their households, underscoring the potential value of contemporaneous program and policy responses to such shocks.

Drought Impacts on the Crop Sector and Adaptation Options in Burkina Faso: A Gender-Focused Computable General Equilibrium Analysis

“…To understand the economic impacts of droughts on developing economies, several studies have been performed. Most of the existing studies are partial equilibria studies (e.g., [54,55]) that focus on one part of the economy and ignore the indirect effects of drought. To account for the direct and indirect effects of drought events on the economy as a whole, a limited number of studies have employed computable general equilibrium modeling ( [15,16,42,50,[56][57][58][59][60]).…”

Introduction: special issue on weather and climate impacts in developing countries

“…Wages in non-agricultural sectors are shown to be impacted by weather events (Oliveira et al, 2021); moreover, socio-economic factors closely related to development, such as education, which curb the long-term growth potential of populations, are also affected. Nübler et al (2020) assess how the cognitive capacities and educational achievement of girls and boys are negatively impacted by droughts in Kenya. The transmission channels at stake are the factors influencing educational achievements, that is, the health and household wealth of the younger generation, which are negatively affected by droughts.…”

School closures and educational attainment in Ethiopia: Can extra classes help children to catch up?

“…School closures that interrupt teaching have set back the education of children across many geographical contexts, occurring for reasons as varied as environmental shocks (De la Fuente, 2007; Nübler et al, 2020; Randell & Gray, 2016) and teacher strikes (Belot & Webbink, 2010). Most recently, the Covid‐19 pandemic has disrupted children's education across the world at an unprecedented scale.…”