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

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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