Skill Formation, Child Labor, and the Schooling Consequences of the World War I Agricultural Boom

We examine how the World War I agricultural commodity price boom affected human capital accumulation during the early decades of the high school movement in the United States. First, based on newly collected county-level enrollment data, we show that enrollment and average daily attendance fell sharply at the peak of the boom. Second, using linked census data between 1910 and 1940, we find that greater exposure during teenage years reduced completed schooling by 0.27 to 0.47 years, with the largest effects concentrated in high school. For younger children, the net effect of increased household resources depends on local child labor intensity: the positive effect of higher parental income on completed schooling is offset in counties where child labor was prevalent. Our results are consistent with dynamic complementarities in skill formation whose effects on lifetime schooling are mediated by the opportunity cost of child labor.