Three Essays on Development Economics and Human Capital

The dissertation includes three chapters in the field of development economics and human capital. In the first chapter, we estimate the impact of exposure to the 2015 Nepal earthquake on intimate partner violence with two rounds of Demographic and Health Surveys data. We find that exposure to the earthquake led to a statistically significant increase in intimate partner violence in the urban areas but not in the rural areas. This is possibly due to an increase in psychosocial and economic stress experienced by the victims of the earthquake. We also offer some evidence that the impact heterogeneity between the urban and rural areas is attributable to the differences in reconstruction processes and assistance provided. In the second chapter, I consider the long term consequence of the Bengal famine of 1943-44 on its survivors about 60 years later. Using the World Heath Survey, I find that those with more severe exposure to the famine reported having significantly higher number of symptoms of diseases such as asthma, angina, TB and depression, and were significantly more likely to face difficulty with their daily life activities. However, the results are almost entirely concentrated among females with males showing almost no negative long term impacts of the famine. An investigation of possible mechanisms explaining this gender disparity indicates that mortality selection among males is more relevant to this gender disparity than son preference hypothesis. In the third chapter, we explore the causal impact of the mid-day meal program on parental investment in education for primary school children in India. Using the first round of the Indian Human Development Survey, and exploiting the staggered implementation of the mid-day meal program across different states, we find that being eligible to receive the meal significantly reduces the amount spent on school fees. The significant decrease in school fees can, in part, be attributed to parents transferring their children from private to government schools. We further find that such transfers do not lead to any improvement in learning or health outcomes.