Floods, Community Infrastructure, and Children’s Heterogeneous Learning Losses in Rural India

Nazar Khalid, University of Pennsylvania
Jere Behrman, University of Pennsylvania
Emily Hannum, University of Pennsylvania
Amrit Thapa, University of Pennsylvania

India has the world’s largest population of school-aged children, many living in rural, flood-prone areas. Studies show floods negatively affect learning outcomes, with variations across gender, religion/caste, and SES. Research suggests community infrastructure may improve learning outcomes, but it remains unclear if it mitigates flood-related learning losses. We study whether better community physical and social infrastructures are associated with (1) smaller flood-related learning losses, (2) different learning for marginalized versus other children in the absence of floods, and (3) different vulnerabilities to floods for marginalized versus other children. We find that (1) most physical and social infrastructures are not associated with lower flood-related learning losses on average, but proximity to towns and several components of social infrastructure are associated with lower flood-related learning losses on average, (2) physical and social infrastructure components have heterogeneous associations, in some cases increasing, in most cases not affecting, and in other cases reducing disparities in learning between marginalized and other children in the absence of floods, and (3) physical and social infrastructure components have heterogeneous effects, in some cases increasing, in most cases not affecting, and in other cases reducing disparities in learning between marginalized and other children in the presence of floods.

Keywords: Human Capital, Education, and Work, Population, Environment, and Climate Change, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Children, Adolescents, and Youth

See paper.