I use variation in childhood exposure to the Dust Bowl, an environmental shock
to health and income, as a natural experiment to explain variation in adult human capital. I
find that the Dust Bowl produced significant adverse impacts in later life, especially when
exposure was in utero, increasing rates of poverty and disability, and decreasing rates of
fertility and college completion. Dependence on agriculture exacerbates these effects,
suggesting that the Dust Bowl was most damaging via the destruction of farming
livelihoods. This collapse of farm incomes, however, had the positive effect of reducing
demand for child farm labor and thus decreasing the opportunity costs of secondary
schooling, as evidenced by increases in high school completion amongst the exposed.