Epidemics, Gender, and Human Capital in Developing Countries

By Stefania Fabrizio, Diego B. P. Gomes, Carine Meyimdjui, Marina Mendes Tavares

November 5, 2021

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Stefania Fabrizio, Diego B. P. Gomes, Carine Meyimdjui, and Marina Mendes Tavares. Epidemics, Gender, and Human Capital in Developing Countries, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2021) accessed November 21, 2024

Disclaimer: IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

Summary

Epidemics have disrupted lives for centuries with deleterious human capital and economic repercussions. In this paper, we investigate how epidemics episodes have impacted school dropouts in developing countries, considering 623 epidemics episodes across countries from 1970 to 2019. Our estimates show that, on average, epidemics reduce completion rates by about 2.6 and 2.1 percentage points in primary and lower secondary education respectively, with girls more severely affected than boys. Using detailed micro data for Senegal, we also estimate the potential loss of lifelong earnings and find that the potential labor earnings loss from dropping out of primary and secondary school is almost double for girls than for boys.

Subject: Education, Gender, Human capital, Labor, Wages, Women

Keywords: Development, Education, Completion rate, Earnings gap, Earnings loss, Effects of epidemic, Epidemic shock, Epidemics, Epidemics episode, Global, Human capital, Impact of boy, Labor earnings impact, Labor earnings loss, School dropout, Wages, Women

Publication Details

Pages:

18
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2021/266
Stock No:

WPIEA2021266
ISBN:

9781589066854
ISSN:

1018-5941

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