IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jechis/v80y2020i1p136-174_5.html

Long-Run Impacts of Agricultural Shocks on Educational Attainment: Evidence from the Boll Weevil

Author

Listed:
  • Baker, Richard B.
  • Blanchette, John
  • Eriksson, Katherine

Abstract

The boll weevil spread across the South from 1892 to 1922 with devastating effect on cotton cultivation. The resulting shift away from this child labor–intensive crop lowered the opportunity cost of school attendance. We investigate the insect’s long-run effect on educational attainment using a sample of adults from the 1940 census linked back to their childhood census records. Both white and black children who were young (ages 4 to 9) when the weevil arrived saw increased educational attainment by 0.24 to 0.36 years. Our results demonstrate the potential for conflict between child labor in agriculture and educational attainment.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:80:y:2020:i:1:p:136-174_5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022050719000779/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    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. Martey, Edward & Etwire, Prince M. & Mockshell, Jonathan & Armah, Ralph & Akorsikumah, Eli, 2023. "Ecological shocks and children’s school attendance and farm work in Ghana," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    3. Albertus, Michael & Espinoza, Mauricio & Fort, Ricardo, 2020. "Land reform and human capital development: Evidence from Peru," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    4. Joel Huesler, 2024. "Impact of Natural Disasters on School Attendance: A Comparative Study from Colonial Jamaica," Working Papers 0264, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    5. Hamid Noghanibehambari & Jason Fletcher, 2024. "Unhooking the Past: Early-life Exposure to Hookworm Eradication and Later-life Longevity," NBER Working Papers 33249, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. James J. Feigenbaum & Soumyajit Mazumder & Cory B. Smith, 2020. "When Coercive Economies Fail: The Political Economy of the US South After the Boll Weevil," NBER Working Papers 27161, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Bald, Anthony, 2025. "The Birth of an Occupation: Professional Nursing in the Era of Public Health," SocArXiv s6t5r_v1, Center for Open Science.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Pierre E. Biscaye, 2025. "Agricultural shocks and long-term conflict risk: Evidence from desert locust swarms," HiCN Working Papers 436, Households in Conflict Network.
    11. Biscaye, Pierre, 2023. "Agricultural Shocks and Conflict in the Short- and Long-Term: Evidence from Desert Locust Swarms," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 337142, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Le, Kien & Nguyen, My, 2022. "Desert locust swarms and child health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    13. Conte, Bruno & Piemontese, Lavinia & Tapsoba, Augustin, 2023. "The power of markets: Impact of desert locust invasions on child health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    14. Abu-Qarn, Aamer & Lichtman-Sadot, Shirlee, 2019. "Connecting Disadvantaged Communities to Work and Higher Education Opportunities: Evidence from Public Transportation Penetration to Arab Towns in Israel," IZA Discussion Papers 12824, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Aamer Abu‐Qarn & Shirlee Lichtman‐Sadot, 2022. "The Trade‐Off Between Work and Education: Evidence from Public Transportation Penetration to Arab Towns in Israel," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(1), pages 193-225, January.
    16. 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.
    17. Hu, Zhi-An & Huang, Wei & Luo, Wei & You, Wuyue & Zhang, Chuanchuan, 2024. "The educational and labor market consequences of teenage exposure to rural land decollectivization in China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N32 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products

    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:cup:jechis:v:80:y:2020:i:1:p:136-174_5. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/jeh .

    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.