Violence, selection and infant mortality in Congo

Abstract

This paper documents the effects of the recent civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo on mortality both in utero and during the first year of life. It instruments for conflict intensity using a mineral price index, which exploits the exogenous variation in the potential value of mineral resources generated by changes in world mineral prices to predict the geographic distribution of the conflict. Using estimates of civil war exposure on mortality across male and female newborn to assess their relative health, it provides evidence of culling effect (in utero selection) as a consequence of in utero shocks.

In Utero Seasonal Food Insecurity and Cognitive Development: Evidence on Gender Imbalances From Ethiopia

“…Our paper extends Miller (2017)'s work by exploring the impact of seasonal food insecurity on cognitive development and by investigating possible gender imbalances in such an impact. 3 Boys have been found to be more vulnerable to shocks in utero such as famine (Almond et al, 2010;Roseboom et al, 2011;Hernández-Julián et al, 2014), conflict (Valente, 2015;Dagnelie et al, 2018), alcohol consumption (Nilsson, 2017) or a parental grief (Black et al, 2016). 4 However, the nature of gender imbalances in the effect of in utero and early life shocks on different health and socio-economic outcomes differs across existing studies.…”

“…The differences in the results are puzzling. The use of different outcome variables and contextual differences may be behind the mixed nature of the evidence but the impact of in utero shocks on outcomes later in life may result from different mechanisms (Valente, 2015;Nilsson, 2017;Dagnelie et al, 2018). The scarring effects result from a downward shift of the entire foetal health distribution.…”

Humanitarian Crises and Adolescent Well‐being: Knowledge, Gaps, and Prospects

“…In Tajikistan, girls affected by conflict are 13 percentage points less likely to be enrolled in school (Shemyakina, 2011). Negative effects of conflict on health outcomes are also widely reported, including on stunting (i.e., height-for-age z scores), birthweight, fetal loss, and infant mortality (Bundervoet et al, 2009;Akresh et al, 2011Akresh et al, , 2012bAkresh et al, , 2016Mansour and Rees, 2012;Minoiu and Shemyakina, 2014;Valente, 2015;Dagnelie et al, 2018).…”

Can unconditional cash transfers mitigate the impact of civil conflict on acute child malnutrition in Yemen?: Evidence from the national social protection monitoring survey

“…Third, civil conflict violence has been shown to be targeted at wealthier households in countries like Burundi (Bundervoet 2010), Rwanda (Verpoorten 2009), Uganda (Blattman and Annan 2010), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (Dagnelie et al 2018), implying a bias that may push the estimated response of socioeconomic outcomes to conflict toward zero. Household FE control for such unobserved, time-constant heterogeneity across households.…”

“…Evidence on the detrimental consequences of civil conflict on human capital, particularly when exposed at early ages, is strong (e.g., Alderman et al 2006;Bundervoet and Verwimp 2009;Akresh et al 2012aAkresh et al , 2012bMinoiu and Shemyakina 2012;Domingues and Barre 2013;Dagnelie et al 2018). However, rigorous empirical research on how to mitigate the adverse impact of civil conflict is limited.…”