Forced Displacement and Human Capital: Evidence from Separated Siblings

41 Pages Posted: 27 Dec 2021 Last revised: 8 May 2022

See all articles by Giorgio Chiovelli

Giorgio Chiovelli

Universidad de Montevideo

Stelios Michalopoulos

Brown University - Department of Economics; Brown University

Elias Papaioannou

London Business School; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Sandra Sequeira

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)

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Date Written: December 2021

Abstract

We examine the impact of conflict-driven displacement on human capital. We focus on the Mozambican civil war (1977–1992), during which more than four million civilians fled to the countryside, cities, and refugee camps and settlements in neighboring countries. We leverage the full post-war census to compare siblings separated during the war, using those who stayed behind as a counterfactual to one’s displacement path. Uprooted children register higher investments in education. Second, we quantify the relative importance of place-based and displacement effects. The latter increases education and decreases attachment to agriculture by the same rate as being exposed to an environment approximately one standard deviation more developed than one’s birthplace. Third, we conduct a survey in Nampula, whose population doubled during the civil war. Those who fled to the city have significantly higher education than their siblings who remained in the countryside and they converged to the levels of schooling of non-mover urban-born individuals. However, those displaced exhibit significantly lower social/civic capital and have worse mental health, even three decades after the war. These findings reveal that displacement shocks can trigger human capital investments, breaking links with subsistence agriculture, but at the cost of long-lasting, social, and psychological traumas.

Suggested Citation

Chiovelli, Giorgio and Michalopoulos, Stelios and Papaioannou, Elias and Sequeira, Sandra, Forced Displacement and Human Capital: Evidence from Separated Siblings (December 2021). NBER Working Paper No. w29589, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3994268

Giorgio Chiovelli (Contact Author)

Universidad de Montevideo ( email )

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Stelios Michalopoulos

Brown University - Department of Economics ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/steliosecon/

Brown University ( email )

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Elias Papaioannou

London Business School ( email )

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Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

London
United Kingdom

Sandra Sequeira

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) ( email )

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London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

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