Exposure to Local Homicides and Early Educational Attainment and Achievement in Mexico

Monica Caudillo, New York University (NYU)
Florencia Torche, New York University (NYU)

We construct an annual panel of all Mexican elementary schools from 1990 to 2010 to which we merge municipality-level homicide rates in order to analyze the effect of exposure to local homicide on children’s educational achievement. Findings indicate that the local homicide rate increases the probability of school failure among elementary-school children. Results are consistent across diverse specifications, including fixed effect models with adjustments for serial correlation and group-specific intercept and slope models. Our findings suggest that violent crime in children’s environments compromises their early achievement and may have long-lasting consequences on human capital formation and economic wellbeing.