Deforestation and Children: Consequences for Paediatric Malaria and Educational Attainment in Indonesia

Abstract

This study examines the effect of forest loss on child health and educational outcomes in Indonesia, a country that has experienced one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. In line with the findings in the medical and biological literature that deforestation can encourage the breeding of malaria-carrying mosquitoes through changes in local ecosystems, our estimation results show that deforestation significantly increases child fever but not other infectious diseases, implying an increased incidence of malaria infection due to deforestation. In addition, the results from the education analysis show that children exposed to larger-scale deforestation in early childhood are afterwards more likely to fall behind academically in terms of years of education. Various robustness checks suggest that these adverse health and educational effects are driven by forest loss but not by other possible preexisting trends or confounders.