Effects of conflict on child health: Evidence from the 1990–1994 Northern Mali Conflict

Abstract

This study evaluates the impact of the 1990-1994 conflict in northern Mali on child health at different timings of exposure (in utero and after birth). Two anthropometric variables (height-forage and weight-for-height Z-scores) are used as indicators of child health. The empirical strategy relies on the difference-indifference approach based on birth cohort, GIS residence information, and conflict intensity. The intensity of conflict exposure is measured by the number of deaths resulting from a conflict that broke out within a 10-km radius of each community. The estimation results show that the more severe the exposure to children and their mothers, the greater is the negative impact on the height, but not on the weight, of children. Additionally, the timing of conflict exposure plays a critical role in the outcome of a child's health: exposure to conflict in utero, rather than after birth, negatively affects health. Placebo test as well as tests of selective migration, fertility, and mortality are conducted and confirmed the robustness of the main results. The differential effects of the timing of exposure in utero suggest that the heightened maternal stress is the main mechanism.

Early Childhood Health During Conflict: The Legacy of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda*

“…We do, however, observe some evidence of a more detrimental (linear) effect of the war on height‐for‐age for those initially exposed prior to birth (see Table F3). A similar result was found in Tsujimoto and Kijima (2020) for northern Mali. However, given the length of the conflict, over 80% of the children in the sample were initially exposed in utero, leaving us with too few observations among those exposed postbirth, and for more than 9 months, to allow meaningful estimation of the threshold model.…”

“…Similarly, Minoiu and Shemyakina (2014) show analogous results for children exposed to the 2002-07 civil war in Côte d'Ivoire. Further contributions to this literature can be found in Akresh et al (2011) for the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Tsujimoto and Kijima (2020) for the 1990-94 Northern Mali Conflict, Phadera (2021) for the 1996-06 Nepali civil war and Shemyakina (2021) for the 2000-05 spike in politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe.…”

Conflict exposure and health: Evidence from the Gaza Strip

“…The 2015 survey and the 2018 survey include the question: "Are you suffering from high blood pressure?". 4 Measuring the intensity of conflict exposure by the number of conflict events occurred in a given area and a given time period is the common practice for empirical studies looking at the effect of conflict on various outcomes (see for instance Berman et al, 2017;Bertoni et al, 2019;and Tsujimoto and Kijima, 2020). 5 Being a dropout may increase rebellion in adolescents and thus the number of conflict events (Di Maio and Nisticò 2019).…”

“…Medical case studies have consistently documented that being exposed to violence and conflict events is correlated with worse population health conditions (Cohen et al, 2007 ; Levy and Sidel, 2016 ). Yet rigorous evidence of a causal effect of conflict exposure on health is still scarce and mostly limited to children’s health (Akresh et al., 2012 ; Bundervoet et al., 2009 ; Mansour and Rees, 2012 ; Minoiu and Shemyakina, 2014 ; Tsujimoto and Kijima, 2020 ; Zachary et al., 2018 ).…”

“…4 4 Measuring the intensity of conflict exposure by the number of conflict events occurred in a given area and a given time period is the common practice for empirical studies looking at the effect of conflict on various outcomes (see for instance Berman et al., 2017; Bertoni et al., 2019; and Tsujimoto and Kijima, 2020). …”