From the Field to the Classroom: The Boll Weevil’s Impact on Education in Rural Georgia

1. From the Field to the Classroom:The Boll Weevil’s Impact on Education in Rural Georgia Richard B. Baker Boston University

2. Questions • 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?

3. Education and Cotton in the South • 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?

4. Black-White Education Gap

5. Contributions • 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

6. Contributions • 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

7. Contributions • 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

8. Related Literature 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?

9. Data Sources • 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

10. Predictions • 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.

11. Specifications • IV • OLS reduced form , : county and year fixed effects : county-level controls

12. Instrumental Variable • 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

13. Boll Weevil in Georgia Source: Hunter and Coad (1923), The Boll Weevil Problem, p. 3.

14. Summary Statistics

15. 2SLS: First Stage

16. 2SLS: Second Stage

17. 2SLS: Second Stage

18. 2SLS: Second Stage

19. Daily Attendance in Hancock County

20. OLS Reduced Form Enrollment

21. OLS Reduced Form Enrollment

22. Summary of Results • 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%.