Quentin Stoeffler

 

Abstract : We investigate how new economic opportunities offered by artisanal gold mining – a sector that occupies 20% of the population – affect human capital investment in Burkina Faso. We use two sources of data. First we combine Demographic Health Surveys with mine permit locations nation-wide. Second we collected first-hand data on households and nearby artisanal gold mines in the central west region. We exploit the exogenous opening and location of gold mines in space (due to the geological conditions) and in time (due to a gold price boom after 2006) to identify the effects of the exposure to ASM on schooling. We find a significant, robust and strong negative effect of ASM on schooling, for boys in particular. We unpack the mechanisms related to income, child labor, labor substitution, and expectations regarding the returns to education. We find support for the two latter mechanisms for explaining the negative impact on education. In sum, our findings suggest that ASM causes negative externalities on human capital accumulation that need to be addressed if ASM is to contribute to poor household livelihoods.