From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 1
From the Field to the Classroom:The Boll Weevil’s Impact on Education
in Rural Georgia
Richard B. BakerBoston University
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 2
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
• Does the demand for child labor on the farm impact schooling decisions?
• How does the employment of children in the agricultural sector affect intergenerational mobility in education and income?
Questions
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 3
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
• South still predominantly agrarian, with cotton the primary crop
• Children were employed to fill seasonal demands for labor in the production of cotton
• Harvest season, Sept. thru Nov., conflicted with schooling
• Differential affect by race?
Education and Cotton in the South
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 4
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
Black-White Education Gap
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 5
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
• Impact of child labor in farming on schooling• Better understanding of the black-white
education gap (with causal estimates)• Challenges:– Endogeneity: • Use agricultural pest as an instrument
– Data Limitations:• Produce a novel county-level panel dataset on
education and wealth statistics
Contributions
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 6
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
• Impact of child labor in farming on schooling• Better understanding of the black-white
education gap (with causal estimates)• Challenges:– Endogeneity: • Use agricultural pest as an instrument
– Data Limitations:• Produce a novel county-level panel dataset on
education and wealth statistics
Contributions
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 7
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
• Impact of child labor in farming on schooling• Better understanding of the black-white
education gap (with causal estimates)• Challenges:– Endogeneity: • Use agricultural pest as an instrument
– Data Limitations:• Produce a novel county-level panel dataset on
education and wealth statistics
Contributions
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 8
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
Child Labor versus Schooling:• Child labor leads to…– poorer exam performance– reduced years of schooling– fewer hours in school
Black-White Education Gap:• Determinants: – school quality– parental characteristics– family structure
• Impact of cotton?
Related Literature
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 9
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
• Annual Report of the Department of Education– School quality and quantity
• Report of the Comptroller-General– Taxable wealth
• Cotton Production in the United States– Number of bales of cotton ginned
• The Boll Weevil Problem– Presence of the boll weevil
Data Sources
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 10
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
• Models of the time allocation of children yield two testable predictions:– Increases in cotton production reduce educational
attainment.– This effect is greater for blacks than whites.
Predictions
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 11
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
• IV
• OLS reduced form
, : county and year fixed effects : county-level controls
Specifications
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 12
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
• Presence of the boll weevil– Lange, Olmstead, and Rhode (2009) find cotton
production fell by 50% due to the boll weevil– The boll weevil directly impacted only cotton
Instrumental Variable
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 13
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
Boll Weevil in Georgia
Source: Hunter and Coad (1923), The Boll Weevil Problem, p. 3.
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IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
Summary Statistics
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 15
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
2SLS: First Stage
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 16
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
2SLS: Second Stage
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 17
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
2SLS: Second Stage
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 18
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
2SLS: Second Stage
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 19
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
Daily Attendance in Hancock County
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IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
OLS Reduced Form Enrollment
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IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
OLS Reduced Form Enrollment
From the Field to the Classroom Richard B. Baker April 1, 2013 22
IntroductionLiterature
DataTheory
EstimationResults
• 10% ↓ cotton => 1.8% ↑ black enrollment• Boll weevil => 4% ↑ black enrollment• Black males were slightly more affected by the
boll weevil’s arrival than were females• Whites were less responsive than blacks to
changes in cotton production, not significant• The boll weevil reduced the black-white
education gap by 17.8%.
Summary of Results