Education In Extreme Environments, Does Mother's Education Still Matter?

Samia Badji (1)

1 GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon - Saint-Etienne

This paper looks at child stunting, wasting, underweight and mid-upper arm circumference in the particular context of Internally Displaced Person Camps in Somalia, the country with one of the highest number of IDPs in the world. The focus is on maternal education and two questions are addressed. First, whether the effect of mother education differs inside and outside camps. Second, if the relative advantage of educated mothers over their uneducated counterpart dissipates with time in the camp. Results show a slightly stronger effect of maternal education in the camp for short-to-middle-term health outcomes.The relative advantage of educated mothers increases with time in the camp. In a context of destitution and dependence, the analysis highlights the role played by maternal education not only as a way to improve child health but also as a factor of resilience.

Keywords: child labor; market imperfections; wealth paradox; sub-Saharan Africa

Domains: Economics and Finance

Samia Badji. Education In Extreme Environments, Does Mother's Education Still Matter?. 2017. ⟨halshs-01468575⟩