The 1987-1989 Locust Plague in Mali: Evidences of the Heterogeneous Impact of Income Shocks on Education Outcomes

This paper estimates the long run impact of a large income shock, by exploiting the regional variation of the 1987-1989 locust invasion in Mali. Using exhaustive Population Census data, we construct birth cohorts of individuals and compare those born and living in the years and villages affected by locust plagues with other cohorts. We find a clear and strong impact on educational outcomes of children living in rural areas but no impact at all on children living in urban areas. School enrollment of children born or aged less than seven years old at the time of shock is found to be impacted. Children born in 1988-1989, the main years of invasion, are those whose school enrollment has been the most affected by the plague. The negative impact on school enrollment of boys is higher than for girls, but on the other hand, girls attending school and living in rural areas have a lower level of school attainment than boys. Controlling for the potentially selective migration behavior of individuals, differences in educational amenities do not dampen our results. Our results are also robust to different variations of the cut-off cohort.