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Unexpected opportunity for girls: Earthquake, disaster relief and female education in China's poor counties

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  • Liu, Xinyan
  • Xu, Yunjiao

Abstract

The Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 devastated poverty-stricken areas in Sichuan Province, China. This paper examines the long-term effect of a disastrous earthquake on children's educational attainment using China's 2015 Population Census. Our cohort difference-in-differences results show that exposure to an earthquake has an unexpected significant positive impact on girls’ educational attainment in poor counties, but not on boys. We suggest that this surprising educational gain may be attributable to the reconstruction of schools and the reduction in school fees after disaster. In the long run, girls in poor affected counties are more likely to delay marriage, postpone childbearing and become self-employed compared with girls in poor unaffected counties. These findings potentially exhibit the unintended benefits in education from post-disaster interventions in poor areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Xinyan & Xu, Yunjiao, 2021. "Unexpected opportunity for girls: Earthquake, disaster relief and female education in China's poor counties," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:70:y:2021:i:c:s1043951x2100119x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2021.101701
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    Cited by:

    1. Akter, Sonia & Fauzia, Talitha & Pundit, Madhavi & Schroder, Marcel, 2022. "A Gender-Specific Earthquake Recovery Assessment Using Administrative and Satellite Data: The Case of Indonesia’s 2016 Aceh Earthquake," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 674, Asian Development Bank, revised 07 Feb 2023.
    2. Lu, Wei & Yang, Po & Zheng, Shilin & Zhou, Sen, 2023. "Natural disasters and high-stakes exam performance: Evidence from the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Earthquake; Educational gender disparity; Government intervention;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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