Human capital development and household welfare in Myanmar

Abstract

Chapter 1 investigates the long-term effect of exposure to earthquake being either inutero or two years of life on human capital outcomes — types of disability and years of education employing difference in differences strategy. We compare the human capital outcomes across the subpopulations of cohorts exposed to earthquake being either in-utero or two years of life using Myanmar census data. The results indicate that cohorts exposed to the earthquakes being either in-utero or two years of life have a higher probability of being disabled and less years of education. Moreover, the affected cohorts born in rural areas have a higher probability of being disabled than cohorts born in urban areas. Our findings suggest that being exposed to the earthquake in the early years of life negatively impact on human capital outcomes in the long run. Chapter 2 examines the effect of the cyclone Nargis on household expenditure and crop production in the Ayeyarwady delta region of Myanmar, using the Myanmar Integrated Household Living Conditions Assessment Survey and applying the difference-in-difference (DID) strategy. We compare household expenditure and crop producation across the subsamples between households in the severely cyclone-affected townships and less cycloneaffected townships. The results show that the cyclone significantly reduces cropland, the quantity of crops harvested, monthly non-food expenditure and health expenditure, and the cyclone increases the quantity of food bought as well as monthly food expenditure. Our findings suggest that the cyclone has a negative impact on crop production and household expenditure. Chapter 3 studies the impact of university expansion through distance education on graduates’ job market outcomes using Myanmar Labor Force Survey. To investigate the policy impacts, this study uses Difference-in-Differences (DID) approach exploiting variations in educational attainment and exposure to the policy intervention. Our findings suggest that the education expansion policy lead policy-affected graduates to the higher probability of being under unemployment, and the lower probability of having a formal job and getting a good job. Results also reveal the differential impacts of gender; male graduates have a higher probability of being under unemployment relative to female graduates; however, they have a higher chance to get a formal job and a good job. Estimates from the Difference-in-Differences integrated with Propensity Score Matching (PSM-DID) reassure the validity of the baseline estimates by purging the ability endogeneity.