Gray, Clark

Randell, Heather

English

This paper examines the effects of climate variability on schooling outcomes in rural Ethiopia.
Investments in education serve as an important pathway out of poverty, yet reduced agricultural
productivity due to droughts or temperature anomalies may affect educational attainment if
children receive poorer nutrition during early childhood, are required to participate in household
income generation during schooling ages, or if households can no longer pay for school-related
expenses. We link longitudinal socioeconomic, demographic, and schooling data from the
Ethiopian Rural Household Survey to high-resolution gridded climate data to measure exposure
to temperature and precipitation relative to historical norms. We then estimate a set of
multivariate regression models to understand how climate variability impacts grade attainment
and school enrollment. Results indicate that early life climatic conditions – namely milder
temperatures during all seasons and greater rainfall during the summer agricultural season – are
associated with an increased likelihood of a child having completed any education. In addition,
greater summer rainfall during both early life and school ages is associated with having
completed any schooling as well as with attending school at the time of the survey. These
findings suggest that future climate change may reduce children’s school participation in rural
Sub-Saharan Africa, slowing progress toward human development goals and poverty alleviation

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Climate variability and educational attainment: Evidence from rural Ethiopia

http://cdr.lib.unc.edu/downloads/4f16c757f

Climate variability and educational attainment: Evidence from rural Ethiopia

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