Research 

Does mining attract or repel qualified individuals into (or from) the teaching profession? Moreover, how does it affect the efforts that teachers put into their roles? I address these questions through a comparative analysis of primary school teachers' characteristics in regions with and without mineral deposits in response to changes in mineral prices. Leveraging the exogenous increase in international mineral prices during the early 2000s commodity price boom and the spatial variability in the location of minerals, I uncover two primary findings. Firstly, a rise in the prices of minerals more suited for artisanal mining is associated with higher educational levels among teachers, albeit with a noticeable decline in their teaching efforts. This trend manifests in various ways, including a lower propensity to provide additional student support, a reduced willingness to engage in pedagogical associations, and a higher likelihood of absenteeism from classes. Secondly, regions with minerals less conducive to artisanal mining witness a drop in teachers’ educational levels post-price increase, with no detectable impact on their teaching practices. The results also suggest a shift in salary perceptions, with greater income dissatisfaction among teachers in regions rich in high-value, labor-intensive minerals. 

Link to the paper.

This paper discusses the mid-line evaluation of the Sahel Women's Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) project in Burkina Faso, a five-year initiative aiming to accelerate the demographic transition and harness the demographic dividend in the Sahel. The project, targeting adolescent girls and young women, seeks to delay child marriage and childbearing, thereby reducing dependency rates and bolstering female labor market participation. In Burkina Faso, three interventions were randomly assigned to the treatment group: (1) safe spaces for teenage girls, (2) safe spaces with entrepreneurship training, and (3) safe spaces, entrepreneurship training, plus a financial subsidy. The findings highlight a significant impact of intervention (3) on marriage age and attitudes, along with noticeable changes in household heads’ perceptions and attitudes towards marriage and motherhood. However, no substantial effects were noted on reproductive health, psycho-social well-being, or income-generating activities.

In this paper, we thoroughly explore the impacts of conflicts, including terrorism, on agricultural production in Burkina Faso. Leveraging a comprehensive nationally representative agricultural panel dataset, alongside geocoded conflict records, we perform a detailed analysis to gauge the effects of various conflict types on crop production patterns. Our methodological approach, which takes advantage of the spatial and temporal variations in households' proximity to conflict zones, uncovers the existence of heterogeneous effects, highlighting the intricate ways in which distinct conflict types influence farming practices.