Natural disasters and university enrolment: Evidence from L’Aquila earthquake

Cerqua, A. and Di Pietro, G. 2017. Natural disasters and university enrolment: Evidence from L’Aquila earthquake. Applied Economics. 49 (14), pp. 1440-1457. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2016.1218431

TitleNatural disasters and university enrolment: Evidence from L’Aquila earthquake
TypeJournal article
AuthorsCerqua, A. and Di Pietro, G.
Abstract

Although there are several studies looking at the effect of natural disasters on economic growth, less attention has been dedicated to their impact on educational outcomes, especially in more developed countries. We use the synthetic control method to examine how the L’Aquila earthquake affected subsequent enrolment at the local university. This issue has wide economic implications as the University of L’Aquila made a large contribution to the local economy before the earthquake. Our results indicate that the earthquake had no statistically significant effect on first-year enrolment at the University of L’Aquila in the three academic years after the disaster. This natural disaster, however, caused a compositional change in the first-year student population, with a substantial increase in the number of students aged 21 or above. This is likely to have been driven by post-disaster measures adopted in order to mitigate the expected negative effects on enrolment triggered by the earthquake.

Keywordsuniversity enrolment, natural disaster, synthetic control method, post-disaster measures
JournalApplied Economics
Journal citation49 (14), pp. 1440-1457
ISSN0003-6846
Year2017
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Accepted author manuscript
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2016.1218431
Publication dates
Published in print2017
Published online16 Aug 2016
Published16 Aug 2016

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