Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Persistent gender gaps in educational attainment in developing countries have been examined in the context of differential parental costs of investment in the education of boys versus girls. Previous research has shown that where direct and opportunity costs of investment in girls are higher, girls' educational attainment tends to be lower than boys' with costs generated by fees, the need for child care provision, income generating activities, and early marriage for girls. Understudied is the effect of disease burdens in increasing costs and contributing to underinvestment in girls' schooling relative to their male counterparts. To estimate the magnitude of this effect, this paper examines whether disease burdens, especially prevalent in the tropics, contribute significantly to widening gender gaps in educational attainments. We estimate the impact of sudden exposure to the 1986 meningitis epidemic in Niger on girls' education relative to boys. Our results suggest that increases in meningitis cases during epidemic years significantly reduce years of education disproportionately for school-aged going girls in areas with higher meningitis exposure. There is no significant effect for boys in the same cohort and no effects of meningitis exposure for non-epidemic years. We also use National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) data to construct an index of Harmattan season intensity and explore the linkages between the Harmattan season and meningitis epidemics to understand how climate change could potentially worsen social inequality through widening the gender gap in human capital investment. Our findings have broader implications for climate-induced disease effects on social inequality.