Análise do impacto da seca sobre as habilidades socioemocionais: evidências para o Ceará

Abstract

Socio-emotional skills are fundamental determinants of the adult’s life outcomes. Significant changes in economic conditions, as a drought shock, may affect the formation of such skills, especially in more vulnerable ages. In this paper, we study how a long-lasting economic shock affects adolescents’ socio-emotional skills in Brazil. We consider as economic shock an exogenous drought in Brazilian semi-arid that persisted for four consecutive years. Our findings suggest that students exposed to the drought reduce significantly their conscientiousness skills, the ability related to persistence, organization, and focus. We also find a relevant role to student socio-economic conditions and the parental quality in moderate the effect of the economic shock on the socio-emotional skills. Finally, we relate the main results to a reduction in student aspirations.