Discussion Papers 2023

CIRJE-F-1211	"How Does Flood Affect Children Differently? The Impact of Flood on Children’s Education, Labor, Food Consumption, and Cognitive Development"
Author Name	Mai, Chinh T. and Akira Hibiki
Date	April 2023
Full Paper	PDF file
Remarks

Abstract
This paper contributes an in-depth study of the short- and long-term effects of floods on the cognitive development of school-aged children. Specifically, we exploit individual-level microdata from a longitudinal study of childhood poverty in Vietnam. Our analyses indicate that floods immediately imposed negative impacts on children’s cognitive skills, but these impacts would be mitigated in the long run. Changes in child schooling, time allocation between school and work, and household food consumption (child nutrition) appear to be potential channels behind these impacts. Girls, older children, firstborn children, and children belonging to ethnic minorities are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of flooding. Our results suggest that policies to alleviate the credit constraints of households in the above groups could mitigate the damage imposed by natural disasters on human capital accumulation.
Keywords: Cognitive skills, Natural disasters, Child labor, Education, Ethnic minority

Abstract

This paper contributes an in-depth study of the short- and long-term effects of floods on the cognitive development of school-aged children. Specifically, we exploit individual-level microdata from a longitudinal study of childhood poverty in Vietnam. Our analyses indicate
that floods immediately imposed negative impacts on children’s cognitive skills, but these impacts would be mitigated in the long run. Changes in child schooling, time allocation between school and work, and household food consumption (child nutrition) appear to be potential
channels behind these impacts. Girls, older children, firstborn children, and children belonging to ethnic minorities are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of flooding. Our results suggest that policies to alleviate the credit constraints of households in the above groups could mitigate the damage imposed by natural disasters on human capital accumulation.

Keywords: Cognitive skills, Natural disasters, Child labor, Education, Ethnic minority