From Mines to Minds: Education in Zambia’s Mining Regions from 1920 to 1990

The welfare effects of extractive activities in developing countries are contested, with limited research on education as a component of well-being. We examine how Zambia’s copper mining industry shaped educational development and inequality from the 1920s to the 1980s. Using regional comparisons and within-country spatial analysis, we show that Zambia developed unusually large spatial educational disparities, driven by the strong advantages of mining towns over rural areas. Yet these benefits emerged only after the mid-1940s, when post-war institutional, political, and labor market changes created incentives for companies and the state to invest in African schooling. Mining’s positive effects were therefore not automatic but contingent on policy and political economy. The findings highlight both the potential and the limits of resource-driven human capital formation.