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From the Field to the Classroom: The Boll Weevil's Impact on Education in Rural Georgia

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  • Baker, Richard B.

Abstract

I examine how production of a child labor–intensive crop (cotton) affected schooling in the early twentieth-century American South. Because cotton production may be endogenous, presence of an agricultural pest (the boll weevil) is employed as an instrument. Using newly collected county-level data for Georgia, I find a 10 percent reduction in cotton caused a 2 percent increase in black enrollment rate, but had little effect on white enrollment. The shift away from cotton following the boll weevil's arrival explains 30 percent of the narrowing of the racial differential in enrollment rates between 1914 and 1929.

Suggested Citation

  • Baker, Richard B., 2015. "From the Field to the Classroom: The Boll Weevil's Impact on Education in Rural Georgia," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(4), pages 1128-1160, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:75:y:2015:i:04:p:1128-1160_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Philipp Ager & Benedikt Herz & Markus Brueckner, 2020. "Structural Change and the Fertility Transition," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(4), pages 806-822, October.
    2. Maurer, Stephan E., 2019. "Oil discoveries and education provision in the Postbellum South," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    3. Baker, Richard B. & Blanchette, John & Eriksson, Katherine, 2020. "Long-Run Impacts of Agricultural Shocks on Educational Attainment: Evidence from the Boll Weevil," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 80(1), pages 136-174, March.
    4. Ager, Philipp & Brueckner, Markus & Herz, Benedikt, 2017. "Structural Change and the Fertility Transition in the American South," Discussion Papers on Economics 6/2017, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Economics.
    5. Margo, Robert A., 2016. "Obama, Katrina, and the Persistence of Racial Inequality," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 76(2), pages 301-341, June.
    6. Stephan E. Maurer, 2018. "Oil discoveries and education spending in the Postbellum South," CEP Discussion Papers dp1526, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    7. Jung, Yeonha, 2018. "The Legacy of King Cotton: Agricultural Patterns and the Quality of Structural Change," SocArXiv trjfz, Center for Open Science.
    8. Jung, Yeonha, 2020. "The long reach of cotton in the US South: Tenant farming, mechanization, and low-skill manufacturing," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    9. Ager, Philipp & Brueckner, Markus & Herz, Benedikt, 2017. "The boll weevil plague and its effect on the southern agricultural sector, 1889–1929," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 94-105.
    10. Kammas, Pantelis & Sakalis, Argyris & Sarantides, Vassilis, 2021. "Pudding, plague and education: trade and human capital formation in an agrarian economy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112206, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Collins, William J. & Wanamaker, Marianne H., 2015. "The Great Migration in Black and White: New Evidence on the Selection and Sorting of Southern Migrants," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(4), pages 947-992, December.
    12. Muller, Christopher & Schrage, Daniel, 2019. "The Political Economy of Incarceration in the Cotton South, 1910-1925," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt7nb8p8bx, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    13. Deirdre Bloome & James Feigenbaum & Christopher Muller, 2017. "Tenancy, Marriage, and the Boll Weevil Infestation, 1892–1930," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(3), pages 1029-1049, June.
    14. Muller, Christopher, 2019. "The Political Economy of Incarceration in the U.S. South, 1910-1925. Working Paper #105-19," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt0758z6m3, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.

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