No use of schools: the heterogenous effects of conflict in Pakistan on enrolment rates of boys and girls

No use of schools: the heterogenous effects of conflict in Pakistan on enrolment rates of boys and girls Abbas Ali Gillani, Khadija M. Bari Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- The purpose of this study is to estimate the impact of conflict witnessed in Pakistan on the enrolment rates of boys and girls. Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children, with an estimated 22.8 million children aged 5–16 years not attending school.By merging data on violence with the data on enrolment rates, this paper finds that exposure to violence is correlated with a decline in overall district-level enrolment rates in the short run at primary-level schools and middle-level schools.However, for boys, violence is also negatively correlated with enrolment rates at middle-level schools in the medium run. One possible mechanism tested in this paper is the potential substitution of boys into the labour market during a period of conflict.To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper adds to the existing literature in several ways. Firstly, the effect of conflict on the labour market by impacting schooling for boys and girls is examined for the first time in Pakistan. Secondly, the district-level data set on enrolment rates used for this study is novel and has not been used before for this type of analysis. Thirdly, while this study strengthens the evidence that the short run effects of conflict are stron...
Source: Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research - Category: Criminology Authors: Source Type: research