23 May 2024, 12:00-13:00 BST
Join the Centre for the Study of Global Development for a hybrid seminar with Professor Catherine Porter.
Seminar abstract
Recent research from the Young Lives project has documented the impact of climate shocks (floods, droughts) during early childhood on later life outcomes, including educational attainment and social and emotional skills. We have found that in India, even shocks experienced in the womb have significant long-term adverse impacts fifteen years on. In Ethiopia and Peru, we have found that climate shocks also have an effect on children’s foundational cognitive skills, such as working memory and inhibitory control. With global heating, such shocks are likely to become more frequent, and more severe. However, our findings do show that when families are able to access social protection, this can mitigate the effects of early-life shocks and protect children’s ability to build skills.
Speaker bio
Professor Catherine Porter is Director of the Young Lives Research Programme at the University of Oxford, and Professor of Development Economics at Lancaster University. Her research interests are in applied microeconomics, often using panel or longitudinal datasets. Her focus is on the impact of unexpected events (shocks) on various outcomes such as nutrition, education and parental investments, how inequality develops through childhood into adolescence and early adulthood, and the effectiveness of policy in remediating such inequalities.