Natural Disasters, Self-Insurance And Human Capital Investment: Evidence From Bangladesh, Ethiopia And Malawi

This paper examines the impacts of
\n disasters on dynamic human capital production using panel
\n data from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Malawi. The empirical
\n results show that the accumulation of biological human
\n capital prior to disasters helps children maintain
\n investments in the post-disaster period. Biological human
\n capital formed in early childhood (long-term nutritional
\n status) plays a role of insurance with resilience to
\n disasters by protecting schooling investment and outcomes,
\n although disasters have negative impacts on investment. In
\n Bangladesh, children with more biological human capital are
\n less affected by the adverse effects of floods, and the rate
\n of investment increases with the initial human capital stock
\n in the post-disaster recovery process. In Ethiopia and
\n Malawi, where droughts are rather frequent, exposure to
\n highly…