IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/11220.html

Natural Disasters and Perceived Returns to Education

Author

Listed:
  • Doumbia, Macoura
  • de Walque, Damien B. C. M.

Abstract

The occurrence of unexpected shocks, such as natural disasters, that destroy physical capital could affect the perception of returns to investment in human capital. This paper tests this hypothesis using a survey conducted in Mozambique while Cyclone Idai hit the country in March 2019. A difference-in-difference approach is used to compare the households interviewed before and after the cyclone occurrence, as well as the households that were directly affected by the cyclone, through destruction, injuries, and deaths. The results indicate that households affected by major shocks report higher perceived returns to completing primary education.

Suggested Citation

  • Doumbia, Macoura & de Walque, Damien B. C. M., 2025. "Natural Disasters and Perceived Returns to Education," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11220, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11220
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099230309242516909/pdf/IDU-9e8cbb8a-d7d7-4de0-88c4-d823dfc37c03.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chand, Satish & Clemens, Michael A., 2023. "Human capital investment under exit options: Evidence from a natural quasi-experiment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    2. Philippe De Vreyer & Nathalie Guilbert & Sandrine Mesple-Somps, 2015. "Impact of Natural Disasters on Education Outcomes: Evidence from the 1987–89 Locust Plague in Mali," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 24(1), pages 57-100.
    3. Sascha O. Becker & Irena Grosfeld & Pauline Grosjean & Nico Voigtländer & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2020. "Forced Migration and Human Capital: Evidence from Post-WWII Population Transfers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(5), pages 1430-1463, May.
    4. Valeria Groppo & Kati Kraehnert, 2017. "The impact of extreme weather events on education," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 30(2), pages 433-472, April.
    5. Lisa Cameron & Manisha Shah, 2015. "Risk-Taking Behavior in the Wake of Natural Disasters," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 484-515.
    6. Philippe De Vreyer & Nathalie Guilbert & Sandrine Mesple-Somps, 2015. "Impact of Natural Disasters on Education Outcomes: Evidence from the 1987–89 Locust Plague in Mali," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), vol. 24(1), pages 57-100.
    7. repec:dau:papers:123456789/14058 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chinh T. Mai & Akira Hibiki, 2023. "How Does Flood Affect Children Differently? The Impact of Flood on Children’s Education, Labor, Food Consumption, and Cognitive Development," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1211, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    2. Cinque, Andrea & Gehrke, Esther & Reiners, Lennart, 2026. "Confined to stay: Migration restrictions, natural disasters, and poverty," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    3. Pierre E. Biscaye, 2025. "Agricultural shocks and long-term conflict risk: Evidence from desert locust swarms," HiCN Working Papers 436, Households in Conflict Network.
    4. Mogge, Lukas & Kraehnert, Kati, 2025. "Perception and protection: The effect of risk exposure on demand for index insurance in Mongolia," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    5. Nadia Benali (a) and Rochdi Feki (b), 2020. "The Relationship between Natural Disasters, Education, ICT and Economic Growth:Empirical Evidence from ARDL Bounds Testing Approach," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 45(4), pages 93-111, December.
    6. Tomohiko INUI & Hiroko OKUDAIRA, 2022. "Parental Investment after Adverse Event: Evidence from the Great East Japan Earthquake," Discussion papers 22049, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    7. Somdeep Chatterjee, 2022. "How Hard Did That Sting? Estimating the Economic Costs of Locust Attacks on Agricultural Production†," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(1), pages 434-459, March.
    8. Fluhrer, Svenja & Kraehnert, Kati, 2022. "Sitting in the same boat: Subjective well-being and social comparison after an extreme weather event," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    9. Mahmud, Mahreen & Riley, Emma, 2021. "Household response to an extreme shock: Evidence on the immediate impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on economic outcomes and well-being in rural Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    10. Ranganathan, Kavitha & Lejarraga, Tomás, 2021. "Elicitation of risk preferences through satisficing," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    11. Niculaescu, Corina E. & Sangiorgi, Ivan & Bell, Adrian R., 2023. "Does personal experience with COVID-19 impact investment decisions? Evidence from a survey of US retail investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    12. Goytom Abraha Kahsay & Daniel Osberghaus, 2018. "Storm Damage and Risk Preferences: Panel Evidence from Germany," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 71(1), pages 301-318, September.
    13. Cheng, Zhiming & Smyth, Russell & Zhang, Le, 2024. "Does childhood adversity affect household portfolio decisions? Evidence from the Chinese Great Famine," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    14. Adnan Efendic & Dejan Kovac & Jacob N. Shapiro, 2023. "Exposure to Conflict, Migrations and Long-run Education and Income Inequality: Evidence from Bosnia and Herzegovina," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(8), pages 1003-1017, November.
    15. Freitas-Monteiro, Teresa & Ludolph, Lars, 2025. "Barriers to humanitarian migration, victimization and integration outcomes: Evidence from Germany," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    16. Kei Hosoya, 2025. "Slow consumption recovery after the pandemic: perspective from a time preference approach," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 72(1), pages 1-25, June.
    17. Islam, Moinul & Kotani, Koji & Managi, Shunsuke, 2016. "Climate perception and flood mitigation cooperation: A Bangladesh case study," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 117-133.
    18. Deng, Xin & Xu, Dingde & Zeng, Miao & Qi, Yanbin, 2019. "Does early-life famine experience impact rural land transfer? Evidence from China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 58-67.
    19. Michael Fritsch & Korneliusz Pylak & Michael Wyrwich, 2019. "Persistence of Entrepreneurship in Different Historical Contexts," Jena Economics Research Papers 2019-003, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    20. Chen, Shuo & Xie, Bin, 2024. "Institutional discrimination and assimilation: Evidence from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:wbk:wbrwps:11220. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    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.