IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sef/csefwp/495.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Education is Forbidden: The Effect of the Boko Haram Conflict on Education in North-East Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Eleonora Bertoni
  • Michele Di Maio

    (Università di Napoli Parthenope
    Inter American Development Bank.)

  • Vasco Molini

    (World Bank)

  • Roberto Nisticò

    (Università di Napoli Federico II and CSEF)

Abstract

TThis paper quantifies the microeconomic impact of the Boko Haram conflict on various educational outcomes of children living in North-East Nigeria during the period 2009- 2016. Using an individual panel fixed-effects regression and exploiting both over-time and within-district variation in household-level conflict exposure, we show that conflict reduces school enrollment and increases the probability of school dropout. In addition, using a standard difference-in-difference estimation strategy, we show that conflict reduces the years of education completed. As for the mechanisms explaining the decision to abandon school, we document that conflict increases the child's probability of working in the household's non-farm enterprise, a choice likely to be motivated by the conflict -induced worsening in the quality of the school supply. Finally, we find that conflict also worsen the general health conditions of the students.

Suggested Citation

  • Eleonora Bertoni & Michele Di Maio & Vasco Molini & Roberto Nisticò, 2018. "Education is Forbidden: The Effect of the Boko Haram Conflict on Education in North-East Nigeria," CSEF Working Papers 495, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    • Handle: RePEc:sef:csefwp:495
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.csef.it/WP/wp495.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Philip Verwimp & Jan Van Bavel, 2014. "Schooling, Violent Conflict, and Gender in Burundi," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(2), pages 384-411.
    2. Akresh, Richard & de Walque, Damien, 2008. "Armed Conflict and Schooling: Evidence from the 1994 Rwandan Genocide," IZA Discussion Papers 3516, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Shemyakina, Olga, 2011. "The effect of armed conflict on accumulation of schooling: Results from Tajikistan," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 186-200, July.
    4. Khan, Sarah & Seltzer, Andrew, 2016. "The Impact of Fundamentalist Terrorism on School Enrolment: Evidence from North-Western Pakistan, 2004-09," IZA Discussion Papers 10168, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Fernanda Marquez-Padilla & Francisco Perez-Arce & Carlos Rodriguez-Castelan, 2015. "The (Non-) Effect of Violence on Education Evidence from the "War on Drugs" in Mexico," Working Papers WR-1082, RAND Corporation.
    6. Mariaflavia Harari & Eliana La Ferrara, 2018. "Conflict, Climate, and Cells: A Disaggregated Analysis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(4), pages 594-608, October.
    7. Michaelsen, Maren M. & Salardi, Paola, 2020. "Violence, psychological stress and educational performance during the “war on drugs” in Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    8. Roy, Sutanuka & Singh, Prakarsh, 2016. "Gender Bias in Education during Conflict: Evidence from Assam," IZA Discussion Papers 10092, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Babatunde Abidoye & Massimiliano Calì, 2021. "Income Shocks and Conflict: Evidence from Nigeria," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 30(5), pages 480-509.
    10. Mevlude Akbulut-Yuksel, 2014. "Children of War: The Long-Run Effects of Large-Scale Physical Destruction and Warfare on Children," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 49(3), pages 634-662.
    11. Mayra Buvinić & Monica Das Gupta & Olga N. Shemyakina, 2014. "Armed Conflict, Gender, and Schooling," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(2), pages 311-319.
    12. Andrew L. Dabalen & Saumik Paul, 2014. "Estimating the Effects of Conflict on Education in Côte d'Ivoire," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(12), pages 1631-1646, December.
    13. Tilman Brück & Michele Di Maio & Sami H Miaari, 2019. "Learning The Hard Way: The Effect of Violent Conflict on Student Academic Achievement," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 17(5), pages 1502-1537.
    14. Catherine rodr�guez & fabio sánchez, 2012. "Armed Conflict Exposure, Human Capital Investments, And Child Labor: Evidence From Colombia," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 161-184, April.
    15. Prakarsh Singh & Sutanuka Roy, 2016. "Gender Bias in Education during Conflict: Evidence from Assam," Working Papers id:11267, eSocialSciences.
    16. Alexandre Marc & Neelam Verjee & Stephen Mogaka, 2015. "The Challenge of Stability and Security in West Africa [Relever les défis de la stabilité et de la sécurité en Afrique de l’Ouest]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 22033.
    17. Miguel, Edward & Roland, Gérard, 2011. "The long-run impact of bombing Vietnam," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 1-15, September.
    18. Kelly Foley & Giovanni Gallipoli & David A. Green, 2014. "Ability, Parental Valuation of Education, and the High School Dropout Decision," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 49(4), pages 906-944.
    19. Singh, Prakarsh & Shemyakina, Olga N., 2016. "Gender-differential effects of terrorism on education: The case of the 1981–1993 Punjab insurgency," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 185-210.
    20. Gianmarco León, 2012. "Civil Conflict and Human Capital Accumulation: The Long-term Effects of Political Violence in Perú," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 47(4), pages 991-1022.
    21. Richard Akresh & Sonia Bhalotra & Marinella Leone & Una Okonkwo Osili, 2012. "War and Stature: Growing Up during the Nigerian Civil War," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(3), pages 273-277, May.
    22. Swee, Eik Leong, 2015. "On war intensity and schooling attainment: The case of Bosnia and Herzegovina," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 40(PA), pages 158-172.
    23. Pivovarova, Margarita & Swee, Eik Leong, 2015. "Quantifying the Microeconomic Effects of War Using Panel Data: Evidence From Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 308-321.
    24. Noury, Abdul G. & Speciale, Biagio, 2016. "Social constraints and women's education: Evidence from Afghanistan under radical religious rule," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 821-841.
    25. Maren M. Michaelsen & Paola Salardi, 2018. "Violence, Psychological Stress and Educational Performance during the “War on Drugs†in Mexico," HiCN Working Papers 262, Households in Conflict Network.
    26. Christine Valente, 2014. "Education and Civil Conflict in Nepal," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(2), pages 354-383.
    27. Tom Bundervoet, 2012. "War, Health, and Educational Attainment: A Panel of Children during Burundi�s Civil War," HiCN Working Papers 114, Households in Conflict Network.
    28. Di Maio, Michele & Nandi, Tushar K., 2013. "The effect of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict on child labor and school attendance in the West Bank," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 107-116.
    29. Minoiu, Camelia & Shemyakina, Olga N., 2014. "Armed conflict, household victimization, and child health in Côte d'Ivoire," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 237-255.
    30. Bellows, John & Miguel, Edward, 2009. "War and local collective action in Sierra Leone," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(11-12), pages 1144-1157, December.
    31. Clionadh Raleigh & rew Linke & HÃ¥vard Hegre & Joakim Karlsen, 2010. "Introducing ACLED: An Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 47(5), pages 651-660, September.
    32. Prakarsh Singh & Sutanuka Roy, 2016. "Gender Bias in Education During Conflict Evidence from Assam," NCID Working Papers 09/2016, Navarra Center for International Development, University of Navarra.
    33. Glewwe, Paul & Miguel, Edward A., 2008. "The Impact of Child Health and Nutrition on Education in Less Developed Countries," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 56, pages 3561-3606, Elsevier.
    34. Akresh, Richard & de Walque, Damien, 2008. "Armed Conflict and Schooling: Evidence from the 1994 Rwandan Genocide," IZA Discussion Papers 3516, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    35. Kondylis, Florence, 2010. "Conflict displacement and labor market outcomes in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 235-248, November.
    36. Patricia Justino & Marinella Leone & Paola Salardi, 2014. "Short- and Long-Term Impact of Violence on Education: The Case of Timor Leste," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(2), pages 320-353.
    37. Chamarbagwala, Rubiana & Morán, Hilcías E., 2011. "The human capital consequences of civil war: Evidence from Guatemala," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 41-61, January.
    38. World Bank, 2016. "Poverty Reduction in Nigeria in the Last Decade," World Bank Publications - Reports 25825, The World Bank Group.
    39. Patricia Justino, 2011. "Violent Conflict and Human Capital Accumulation," HiCN Working Papers 99, Households in Conflict Network.
    40. Márquez-Padilla,Fernanda & Pérez-Arce,Francisco & Rodriguez Castelan,Carlos, 2015. "The (non-) effect of violence on education : evidence from the"war on drugs"in Mexico," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7230, The World Bank.
    41. Sutanuka Roy & Prakarsh Singh, 2016. "Gender bias in education during conflict: Evidence from Assam," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-67, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    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. Odozi, John Chiwuzulum & Oyelere, Ruth Uwaifo, 2019. "Conflict Exposure and Economic Welfare in Nigeria," GLO Discussion Paper Series 334, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    2. Bharati, Tushar, 2022. "The long shadow of the Kargil War: The effect of early-life stress on education," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    3. Chiwuzulum Odozi, John & Uwaifo Oyelere, Ruth, 2019. "Violent Conflict Exposure in Nigeria and Economic Welfare," IZA Discussion Papers 12570, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Yamada, Hiroyuki & Matsushima, Midori, 2020. "Impacts of long-lasting civil conflicts on education: Evidence from the 2014 Census of Myanmar," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    5. Dominic Rohner, 2022. "Conflict, Civil Wars and Human Development," Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie 22.08, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie.
    6. Hönig, Tillman, 2017. "The Impact of Peace: Evidence from Nigeria," MPRA Paper 83302, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Richard Akresh, 2016. "Climate Change, Conflict, and Children," HiCN Working Papers 221, Households in Conflict Network.
    8. Hendrik Jürges & Luca Stella & Sameh Hallaq & Alexandra Schwarz, 2022. "Cohort at risk: long-term consequences of conflict for child school achievement," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(1), pages 1-43, January.
    9. Tilman Br�ck & Patricia Justino & Philip Verwimp & Andrew Tedesco & Alexandra Avdeenko, 2013. "Measuring Conflict Exposure in Micro-Level Surveys," HiCN Working Papers 153, Households in Conflict Network.
    10. Vesal, Mohammad, 2017. "The Long Run Educational Impact of Iran-Iraq War," MPRA Paper 101014, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Ito, Takahiro & Li, Jia & Usoof-Thowfeek, Ramila & Yamazaki, Koji, 2024. "Educational consequences of firsthand exposure to armed conflict: The case of the Sri Lankan Civil War," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    12. Justino, Patricia, 2016. "Supply and demand restrictions to education in conflict-affected countries: New research and future agendas," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 76-85.
    13. Swee, Eik Leong, 2015. "On war intensity and schooling attainment: The case of Bosnia and Herzegovina," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 40(PA), pages 158-172.
    14. Mounu Prem & Juan F. Vargas & Olga Namen, 2023. "The Human Capital Peace Dividend," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 58(3), pages 962-1002.
    15. Richard Akresh & Sonia Bhalotra & Marinella Leone & Una Osili, 2023. "First- and Second-Generation Impacts of the Biafran War," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 58(2), pages 488-531.
    16. Massimiliano Bratti & Mariapia Mendola & Alfonso Miranda, 2015. "Hard to Forget: the Long-Lasting Impact of War on Mental Health," Development Working Papers 388, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    17. Minoiu, Camelia & Shemyakina, Olga N., 2014. "Armed conflict, household victimization, and child health in Côte d'Ivoire," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 237-255.
    18. Silwal, Shikha, 2016. "Resilience amidst conflict? The effect of civil war exposure on secondary education," International Journal of Development and Conflict, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, vol. 6(2), pages 97-120.
    19. Tillman Hönig, 2019. "The Impact of Peace: Evidence from Nigeria," HiCN Working Papers 293, Households in Conflict Network.
    20. Nicole Stoelinga, 2024. "Education during conflict: The effect of territorial control by insurgents on schooling," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2024_03, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Boko Haram; conflict ; education; Nigeria;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • N45 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Asia including Middle East
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sef:csefwp:495. 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: Dr. Maria Carannante (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cssalit.html .

    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.