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Title: The Impact of Low Intensity Conflict on Education Attainment: Lessons from IDPs in Colombia

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2013

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Abstract: Forty years of armed conflict have made Colombia home to over 3 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). The armed conflict in Colombia is unique given that it is characterized by asymmetric warfare and low intensity. This paper explores the education attainment effects on children of direct exposure to this kind of conflict. First we show that given the low intensity of this conflict, estimating the impact of conflict on school attainment in Colombia, by comparing education outcomes of children living in municipalities with high conflict levels with those who do not, produces estimates that are very different from the direct impact of conflict. Next we estimate the direct education attainment effect of the conflict by comparing children of IDPs with children of non-migrants using fixed effects and instrumental variables (IV) estimators. Our IV results suggest that direct exposure to conflict reduces education attainment by 0.12 of a year for children 6-11 years and reduces attainment by about 0.42 of a year for children at the secondary level.

Url: https://works.bepress.com/ruthoyelere/9/download/

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Authors: Oyelere, Ruth, U; Wharton, Kate

Publisher: Morehouse College

Data Collections: IPUMS International

Topics: Education

Countries: Colombia