Abstract
Although it is known that ethnic biases exist in Africa, less is known about how these respond to natural resource prices. Many ethnically fragmented African countries depend on a small number commodities for their export base. Oil prices experienced in early life predict differential adult outcomes across Nigerian ethnic groups. Our difference-in-difference approach compares members of southern ethnicities to other Nigerians from the same birth cohort. This North-South distinction mirrors several economic, political, and religious cleavages in the country. Greater prices in a southern individual’s birth year predict several relative outcomes, including reduced fertility, delayed marriage, higher probabilities of working and having a skilled occupation, greater schooling, lower height, and greater BMI. These microeconomic impacts are explained by macroeconomic responses to oil prices; relatively, urban incomes increase, food production declines, and maternal labor intensifies in the South.
Highlights
In this paper, we ask whether members of African ethnic groups benefit differentially from positive commodity price shocks in resource producing countries
We find that men in southern Nigeria are relatively less likely to work in agriculture in years of high oil prices
We argue that the Nigerian oil boom led to greater structural transformation in Southern Nigeria than in Northern Nigeria, and that this explains the changing regional differences we see across birth cohorts
Summary
We ask whether members of African ethnic groups benefit differentially from positive commodity price shocks in resource producing countries. By testing whether members of certain ethnic groups benefit differentially from positive oil shocks, we assess the distributional impacts of oil price changes across regions and across ethnicities. Our approach is to test whether real oil price shocks experienced in early life affect human capital outcomes of members of Nigeria’s ethnic groups This allows us to recover the ultimate distribution of the relative impacts of changes in oil prices. We present several additional results that we use to evaluate a larger set of possible mechanisms These changes are not as simple as local economic spillovers in the areas where oil is produced; we find little difference in responses between the oil-producing Delta region and the remainder of Southern Nigeria. We find that men in southern Nigeria are relatively less likely to work in agriculture in years of high oil prices
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
