Abstract:
This paper provides causal evidence of the long-term consequences of the earthquake that hit Guatemala in 1976 on the educational attainment of Guatemalan children. I combine a unique Department-level dataset on the percentage of schools destroyed, and the percentage of people made homeless by the disaster, with individual survey data from the 2000 National Living Conditions Survey (ENCOVI). The identification strategy exploits the plausibly exogenous Department-by- cohort variation in the intensity of destruction asa unique quasi-experiment. The findings suggest significant, long-lasting detrimental effects on human capital outcomes of individuals who were in early childhood, or of school-going age in 1976. Thesechildren have fewer years of schooling on average in adulthood.