Displacement and education of the next generation: evidence from Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

In this paper, I study the effect of displacement (in the sense of forced migration) of parents during a violent conflict on investment in their childrens' education years later. Using the ethnic division during the Bosnian War as a natural experiment, I plausibly identify exogenously displaced households and compare them to households who did not have to move because of the war. Displaced parents spend between 20 and 30% less on the education of their children in primary and secondary school. The result also holds for single expenditure positions like textbooks, school materials and annual tuition in secondary school. A number of robustness checks and nearest-neighbor matching is performed to confirm the finding. A decomposition of the causal effect shows that differences in income and the stock of durable goods can at most explain one third of the finding. Potential explanations for the reduced spending of displaced parents on education include altered preferences through the exposure to violence, increased uncertainty about the future, and financial constraints. JEL Classification: I25; J15; O15

Effect of Forced Displacement on Health

“…Therefore using post-displacement income and labour market variables as controls would qualify as using bad controls (Angrist and Pischke, 2008). As education is affected by displacement (Eder, 2014), we circumvent this problem by excluding individuals who were younger than 25 years at the beginning of the war in 1991. We do not include the present county of residence in the estimation as 88.5% of displaced individuals have the same county of residence as before the war.…”

“…(For example, Kondylis (), analysing post‐war Bosnia, showed that displaced males are more likely to be unemployed, whereas displaced females are more likely to drop out of the labour force. Eder (), also using post‐war Bosnia, showed that displaced individuals invest less in their children's education. Bauer et al .…”

“…(For example, Kondylis (2010), analysing post-war Bosnia, showed that displaced males are more likely to be unemployed, whereas displaced females are more likely to drop out of the labour force. Eder (2014), also using post-war Bosnia, showed that displaced individuals invest less in their children's education. Bauer et al (2013), analysing the integration of Germans from eastern Europe, concluded that the first generation of migrants has lower incomes and ownership rates.…”

Leaving, Staying or Coming Back? Migration Decisions During the Northern Mali Conflict

“…Some scholars have focused on analysing outcomes in refugee camps (Lehrer, 2010;Bozzoli et al, 2015;Crea et al, 2015). Other researchers have focused on the impact of forced migration on the welfare of the migrants in the short and medium terms (Ibáñez and Vélez, 2008;Kondylis, 2010;Ibáñez and Moya, 2010;Fiala, 2012;Justino and Verwimp, 2013;Eder, 2014;, as well as in the long-run (Serc, 2009;Falck et al, 2011;Bauer et al, 2013).…”

Essays on conflict-related migration and development in the case of Afghanistan

“…Within this field of study, displacement is acknowledged as a clear channel through which war may have an impact on human capital formation (Justino, 2011). Still, only recently has there been any scholarly work on the effects of displacement in particular, in contrast to war in general (Fiala, 2009;Fiala, 2012;Eder, 2013;Oyelere & Wharton, 2013;Verwimp & Van Bavel, 2013). It is within this still relatively unexplored space that this study aims to make a contribution, using a unique dataset for the (post-) conflict context of Afghanistan.…”