The (Non-)Effect of Violence on Education : Evidence from the War on Drugs in Mexico

This paper studies the sharp increase in violence experienced in Mexico after 2006, known as The War on Drugs, and its effects on human capital accumulation. The upsurge in violence is expected to have direct effects on individuals schooling decisi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Márquez-Padilla, Fernanda, Pérez-Arce, Francisco, Rodriguez Castelan, Carlos
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	2015
Subjects:	EMPLOYMENT CIVIL CONFLICT COLLEGE WORKFORCE ECONOMIC GROWTH BASIC EDUCATION TEACHERS EDUCATION ENROLLMENTS LOCAL ECONOMY BRIBERY ABUSE MALE LABOR FORCE DEATHS CRIMINAL PUBLIC EDUCATION TERRORIST ASSAULT IMPACT OF VIOLENCE LABOR FORCE POPULATION GROUPS DEVELOPING COUNTRIES HUMAN CAPITAL FORMATION PROPERTY CRIMES DRUGS HEALTH CARE DEATH PAPERS DROPOUT SECONDARY SCHOOL LEVEL POLICY DISCUSSIONS CRIME NATIONAL LEVEL RURAL POPULATION DISSERTATION NUMBER OF PEOPLE POPULATION SIZE CRIME-RIDDEN AREAS HOMICIDES HOMICIDE RATE PUBLIC HEALTH THEFT NATIONAL POPULATION OPEN ACCESS KNOWLEDGE DRUG TRADE ARMED CONFLICT LABOR MARKET STUDENT INFORMATION SOCIAL SCIENTISTS VIOLENT CRIME QUALITY OF EDUCATION TRAINING DRUG TRAFFICKING GUNS EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT PRIVATE SCHOOLS SECONDARY SCHOOLS ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT SECONDARY SCHOOL FERTILITY RATE MIGRATION VIOLENCE CHILD ABUSE NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS GANGS HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS LEARNING RESEARCH GUN SCHOOL STUDENTS PRIMARY SCHOOL MIGRANTS SCHOOL LEVELS INJURY RETENTION RATE PROGRESS HOMICIDE UNEMPLOYMENT HOUSEHOLD LEVEL SCHOOL YEAR HUMAN CAPITAL YOUNG MEN SOCIAL SPENDING DROPOUT RATES DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE YOUNG ADULTS WORKERS FRAUD ENROLLMENT RATES POLICIES SCIENCE UNIVERSITY LEVEL SOCIAL SERVICES STUDENT SCHOOLS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER ECONOMIC STATUS CRIMES LEARNING OUTCOMES EXPOSURE TO VIOLENCE LABOUR MARKET PUBLIC EXPENDITURES EXPENDITURES LITERATURE EARLY CHILDHOOD KIDS SCHOOL CHILDREN POPULATIONS SECURITY POLICY POLICY HOMICIDE RATES WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SPILLOVER GOVERNMENT POLICIES FEMALE STUDENTS CRIMINALS LABOUR MARKET OUTCOMES SCIENTISTS STATE GOVERNMENTS SECURITY RACKETEERING WAR CRIME RATES HUMAN RESOURCES CENSUSES RURAL AREAS POVERTY NUMBER OF CHILDREN FEMALE LABOR FORCE YOUNG WOMEN IMMIGRATION VITAL STATISTICS NATIONAL COUNCIL DRUG POPULATION UNIVERSITY STUDENTS SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN POLICY RESEARCH TRAFFICKING CIVIL WAR FERTILITY WOMEN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS POLICY ANALYSIS YOUTH VIOLENCE ORGANIZED CRIME SCHOOL SECONDARY EDUCATION IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION PEACE CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES ARMED CONFLICTS DRUG TRAFFIC SCHOOL AGE DEVELOPMENT POLICY
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/04/24261204/non--effect-violence-education-evidence-war-drugs-mexico http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21844

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Summary:	This paper studies the sharp increase in violence experienced in Mexico after 2006, known as The War on Drugs, and its effects on human capital accumulation. The upsurge in violence is expected to have direct effects on individuals schooling decisions, but not indirect effects, because there was no severe destruction of infrastructure. The fact that the marked increases in violence were concentrated in some municipalities (and not in others) allows for implementation of a fixed-effects methodology to study the effects of violence on educational outcomes. Different from several recent studies that have found significant negative effects of violence on economic outcomes in Mexico, the paper finds evidence that this is not the case, at least for human capital accumulation. The paper uses several sources of data on homicides and educational outcomes and shows that, at most, there are very small effects on total enrollment. These small effects may be driven by some students being displaced from high-violence municipalities to low-violence municipalities; but the education decisions of individuals do not seem to be highly impacted. The analysis discards the possibility that the effects on enrollment of young adults appear small because of a counteracting effect from ex-workers returning to school. The results stand in contrast with recent evidence of the negative effects of violence on short-term economic growth, since minimal to 0 effects on human capital accumulation today should have little to no adverse effects on long-term growth outcomes in Mexico.

The (Non-)Effect of Violence on Education : Evidence from the War on Drugs in Mexico

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