Child Schooling,Child Health,and Rainfall Shocks: Evidence from Rural Vietnam

Abstract

We study the effect of rainfall shocks on child schooling outcomes and on standardised height for age (a measure of child health) in rural Vietnam. We find that adverse rainfall shocks during pregnancy adversely affect children’s school entry delay and progress through school. Adverse rainfall shocks in the third year of life adversely affect both schooling and child health. These effects differ by region, as a result of constraints that reflect regional economic heterogeneity. We predict that policies that help rural families smooth income shocks will result in increases in human capital and in substantial cumulative returns over a worker’s working life.