Trapped in Poverty: The Impact of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions on Education. A Geospatial Approach

Large parts of the population in developing countries depend on agriculture for their income and food security. However, agriculture-dependent households are vulnerable to agricultural shocks, which prevent them from investing in education, thus hindering their socio-economic progress and their ability to reduce dependence on agriculture. Research on the impact of agricultural shocks on education predominantly focuses on those caused by extreme weather events and fluctuations in agricultural commodity prices. The impact of large-scale land acquisitions on education has not been studied, despite their growing number and potential to disrupt the agricultural production of small-scale farmers. This paper fills the research gap by hypothesizing that large-scale land acquisitions negatively impact the education of people in their vicinity due to resulting food insecurity and income loss, leading households to divert educational resources to basic needs and withdraw children from school to contribute to income. The negative impact on education is expected to be more pronounced for boys, who find rural employment more easily and are thus more frequently withdrawn from school. Employing a geospatial approach, this paper links 322 large-scale land acquisitions in Africa to 46,711 Afrobarometer respondents. The results of the regression analysis indicate that being affected by a large-scale land acquisition between the ages of 0 and 16 has a statistically significant negative impact on education. The hypothesized stronger negative impact on male education is not supported by the results. The findings imply that large-scale land acquisitions hinder rural development and entrench poverty, contrary to claims by investors and politicians.