Three essays on health and education in Guyana

Abstract

This dissertation, through a set of three substantive chapters, examines the effects of weather shocks, educational reform and birth order on health and education-related outcomes in Guyana. In doing so, this dissertation brings a wealth of new literature for Guyana, which remains an underexplored context. Findings from this dissertation have implications for enhancing the economic and social well-being of the nation. The first chapter examines the effects of in-utero exposure to extreme weather events on early childhood health in flood-prone Guyana. Using three waves of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, we find that prenatal exposure to higher-than-average rainfall events or positive rainfall shocks (i.e., floods) negatively affects the height-for-age z score and increases the likelihood of stunting and severe stunting. Given the importance of exposure to weather shocks in early gestation, we examine the impact by trimesters and find that positive rainfall shocks in the first trimester matter the most. The second chapter examines the effects on educational attainment and labour market outcomes of a Universal Secondary Education (USE) policy during 2003-07 for the conversion of schools from a pre-vocational track into an academic track. Using data from the Guyana Labour Force Surveys and the Digest of Education Statistics, we find that greater exposure to the USE leads to an increase in the completion of secondary or tertiary education in Guyana. Our findings suggest that the exposure to the USE policy reform had positive effects on the completion of secondary or tertiary education and the potential to earn higher wages in Guyana. Overall, we find that the USE (2003-2007) policy reform did not close the achievement gaps in education across ethnicities. The final chapter examines the effects of birth order on early childhood health in Guyana and finds that the height-for-age z-score increases more for second-and third-born male children when compared to first-born children. We also find that mothers both breastfed and invested more in vaccinations for children whose birth order is higher than one. In addition, we find that third-born and fourth-born and higher Muslim children tend to have higher birth weights when compared to firstborn children.