Recovery from an early-life shock through improved access to schools

Abstract

We study recovery from an adverse early-life environmental shock. First, we show that exposure to an adverse rainfall shock in the first year of life led to lower educational attainment for exposed Indonesians. Next, by use of geographic variation in the intensity of an Indonesian primary school construction program, we find that improved access to primary schools facilitated complete recovery from the educational deficit. The program had no effect on the education of individuals who did not experience the adverse rainfall shock. This was, in part, a result of deteriorating school quality and increased competition to get into middle schools.