Instrumenting the Effect of Terrorism on Education in Kenya

Arbeitspapier

This paper estimates the effect of exposure to terrorist violence on education. Since terrorists may choose targets endogenously, we construct a set of novel instruments. To that end, we leverage exogenous variation from a local terrorist group's revenues and its affiliation with al-Qaeda. Across several Kenyan datasets we find that attacks suppress school enrolment more than predicted by difference-in-differences-type estimators. This indicates that terrorists target areas experiencing unobserved, positive shocks. Evidence suggests fears and concerns as mechanisms of impact, rather than educational supply.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 16544

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions ; Education and Economic Development ; Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
• Subject: conflict ; education ; instrumental variables

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Alfano, Marco ; Goerlach, Joseph-Simon
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2023

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/282671
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET