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Food Price Inflation and Children's Schooling

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  • Michael Grimm

Abstract

I analyze the impact of food price inflation on parental decisions to send their children to school. Moreover, I use the fact that food crop farmers and cotton farmers were exposed differently to that shock to estimate the income elasticity of school enrolment. The results suggest that the shock-induced loss in purchasing power had an immediate effect on enrolment rates. Instrumental variable estimates show that the effect of household income on children's school enrolment is much larger than a simple OLS regression would suggest. Hence, policies to expand education in Sub-Saharan Africa, should not neglect the demand side.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Grimm, 2008. "Food Price Inflation and Children's Schooling," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 844, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp844
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    Cited by:

    1. Renate Hartwig & Michael Grimm, 2009. "An Assessment of the Effects of the 2002 Food Crisis on Children’s Health in Malawi," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 19, Courant Research Centre PEG.
    2. Karan Singh, B, 2011. "Impact of adverse economic shocks on the Indian child labour market and the schooling of children of poor households," MPRA Paper 30958, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Alban Conto, Carolina & Akseer, Spogmai & Dreesen, Thomas & Kamei, Akito & Mizunoya, Suguru & Rigole, Annika, 2021. "Potential effects of COVID-19 school closures on foundational skills and Country responses for mitigating learning loss," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education; Household Income; Inflation; Aggregate Shocks; Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets

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