Poverty Trap and Educational Shock: Evidence from Missionary Fields

Low growth equilibria with low investment in human capital generally tend to<br/>persist till an external shock affects the economy. In this paper we use data on<br/>Christian missions to proxy a long-lasting educational shock in Africa. We estimate<br/>the effect of this shock on the quality of children which we proxy using the rate of<br/>underweight children. Consistent with the economic theory we find that the quality<br/>of children significantly rises with the exposure to this shock and this indirect effect<br/>accounts to almost 4 percent in terms of GDP for districts with the maximal exposure<br/>