IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/intell/v79y2020ics0160289620300131.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Detrimental effects of an economic crisis on student cognitive achievement – A natural experiment from Palestine

Author

Listed:
  • Bisharat, Khaled
  • Christ, Alexander
  • Kröner, Stephan

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the differential effect of regional economic prosperity on mean student cognitive achievement by analysing data from a “natural experiment” in Palestine. Its main regions, Gaza and the West Bank, inhabited by a population sharing history, culture and gene pool, were only recently separated, yet distinctively affected by geopolitical events. The “experimental group”, living in Gaza, suffered from an enduring politico-economic crisis treatment, while the “control group”, inhabitants of the West Bank, was exposed to a much shorter and milder crisis. As a manipulation check, we used economic data reported by Etkes and Zimring (2015), who uncovered a severe and lasting decrease in household welfare and labour productivity in Gaza. As dependent variables, we used achievement scores of TIMSS maths and science students, which displayed only negligible pro-West Bank, pre-crisis differences (maths: Cohen's d = −0.04; t = −0.56; science: d = 0.11; t = 1.48). This margin grew during the crisis (maths: d = 0.17; t = 2.65; science: d = 0.26; t = 4.25) and even more so in the post-crisis phase (maths: d = 0.38; t = 5.09; science: d = 0.46; t = 6.76).

Suggested Citation

  • Bisharat, Khaled & Christ, Alexander & Kröner, Stephan, 2020. "Detrimental effects of an economic crisis on student cognitive achievement – A natural experiment from Palestine," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:intell:v:79:y:2020:i:c:s0160289620300131
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2020.101435
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289620300131
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.intell.2020.101435?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hanushek, Eric A. & Woessmann, Ludger, 2007. "The role of education quality for economic growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4122, The World Bank.
    2. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Remy Bolito-Losembe, 2014. "Poverty and Intelligence: Evidence using Quantile Regression," Economic Research Guardian, Weissberg Publishing, vol. 4(1), pages 25-32, June.
    3. World Bank, 2013. "West Bank and Gaza : Area C and the Future of the Palestinian Economy," World Bank Publications - Reports 16686, The World Bank Group.
    4. Berenger, Valerie & Verdier-Chouchane, Audrey, 2007. "Multidimensional Measures of Well-Being: Standard of Living and Quality of Life Across Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1259-1276, July.
    5. Per-Anders Edin & Peter Fredriksson & Olof Åslund, 2003. "Ethnic Enclaves and the Economic Success of Immigrants—Evidence from a Natural Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 329-357.
    6. Daniel M. Bernhofen & John C. Brown, 2005. "An Empirical Assessment of the Comparative Advantage Gains from Trade: Evidence from Japan," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 208-225, March.
    7. Ludger Vessman & Jerik Hanushek, 2007. "The role of education quality in economic growth (Part I)," Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, issue 2, pages 86-116.
    8. Douglas A. Irwin, 2005. "The Welfare Cost of Autarky: Evidence from the Jeffersonian Trade Embargo, 1807–09," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 631-645, September.
    9. Garett Jones & W. Schneider, 2006. "Intelligence, Human Capital, and Economic Growth: A Bayesian Averaging of Classical Estimates (BACE) Approach," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 71-93, March.
    10. Etkes, Haggay & Zimring, Assaf, 2015. "When trade stops: Lessons from the Gaza blockade 2007–2010," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 16-27.
    11. Bruce Sacerdote, 2001. "Peer Effects with Random Assignment: Results for Dartmouth Roommates," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(2), pages 681-704.
    12. World Bank, 2011. "Coping with Conflict? Poverty and Inclusion in the West Bank and Gaza," World Bank Publications - Reports 2774, The World Bank Group.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stark, Oded & Kosiorowski, Grzegorz, 2020. "An Adverse Social Welfare Effect of Quadruply Gainful Trade," East Asian Economic Review, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, vol. 24(3), pages 207-235, September.
    2. Dubey, Ram Sewak & Kang, Minwook, 2020. "Industrial subsidy policy and the optimal level of specialization," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 81-88.
    3. Elisa Giannone, 2018. "The Large Consequences and the Spillover Effects of a Small Shock," 2018 Meeting Papers 986, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    4. Chui Ying Lee & Shinji Kaneko & Yuichiro Yoshida & Sun Hangcheng & Masaru Ichihashi & Katsufumi Fukuda, 2021. "Equivalence Gain of the Global Financial Crisis: A Note," Arthaniti: Journal of Economic Theory and Practice, , vol. 20(1), pages 111-121, June.
    5. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Simplice A. Asongu, 2015. "The Effect of Intelligence on Financial Development: A Cross-Country Comparison," Research Africa Network Working Papers 15/002, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    6. Francesco Amodio & Leonardo Baccini & Michele Di Maio, 2021. "Security, Trade, and Political Violence," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 1-37.
    7. UNESCO Publishing, 2015. "The Economic Cost of Out-of-School Children in Southeast Asia," Working Papers id:7651, eSocialSciences.
    8. Abdel-Rahman, Alaa & Fuller, David, 2014. "Education and employment in Egypt: the policies, discrepancies and possible solutions," MPRA Paper 67571, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Kodila-Tedika, Oasis & Asongu, Simplice, 2015. "Intelligence, Human Capital and HIV/AIDS: Fresh Exploration," MPRA Paper 68320, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Vegas, E & Ganimian, A. J., 2013. "Theory and Evidence on Teacher Policies in Developed and Developing Countries," Working Paper 104291, Harvard University OpenScholar.
    11. Costinot, Arnaud & Rodríguez-Clare, Andrés, 2014. "Trade Theory with Numbers: Quantifying the Consequences of Globalization," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 197-261, Elsevier.
    12. Lee, Yong Suk, 2018. "International isolation and regional inequality: Evidence from sanctions on North Korea," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 34-51.
    13. Fadi Fawaz & Anis Mnif & Ani Popiashvili, 2021. "Impact of governance on economic growth in developing countries: a case of HIDC vs. LIDC," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 23(1), pages 44-58, June.
    14. Ali Moghaddasi Kelishomi & Roberto Nisticò, 2021. "Employment Effects of Economic Sanctions," CSEF Working Papers 615, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    15. Abhishek Chakravarty & Matthias Parey & Greg C Wright, 2021. "The Human Capital Legacy of a Trade Embargo," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(3), pages 1692-1733.
    16. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Simplice Asongu & Florentin Azia-Dimbu, 2016. "The Sensitive Nature of Social Trust to Intelligence," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 16/005, African Governance and Development Institute..
    17. Brezis Elise S., 2019. "Should individuals migrate before acquiring education or after? A new model of Brain Waste vs. Brain Drain," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(2), pages 1-11, June.
    18. Carolina Zayas Márquez & Santos Lopez Leyva & Patricia Moctezuma Hernández, 2016. "Influencia de los rankings universitarios sobre la calidad de las universidades de Argentina, Brasil, Chile y México," Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación volume 11, in: José Manuel Cordero Ferrera & Rosa Simancas Rodríguez (ed.), Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación 11, edition 1, volume 11, chapter 25, pages 467-482, Asociación de Economía de la Educación.
    19. Hinz, Julian & Monastyrenko, Evgenii, 2022. "Bearing the cost of politics: Consumer prices and welfare in Russia," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    20. Chris Baumann & Hamin, 2011. "The role of culture, competitiveness and economic performance in explaining academic performance: a global market analysis for international student segmentation," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 181-201, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:intell:v:79:y:2020:i:c:s0160289620300131. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/intelligence .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.