The impacts of armed conflict on child health: Evidence from 56 developing countries

Abstract

This article evaluates the extent to which armed conflicts influence early childhood health for 56 developing countries over nearly 30 years. Exploiting both spatial and temporal variations in conflict exposure within a difference-in-differences framework, the article uncovers detrimental ramifications of armed conflicts on the health outcomes of children under five years old. Particularly, children exposed to armed conflicts have lower height-for-age, weight-for-height, and weight-for-age z-scores by 0.08, 0.05, and 0.10 standard deviations, respectively. Taking the average corresponding anthropometric z-scores of unexposed children as the benchmarks, exposure to armed conflicts makes children 6.6% shorter for their age, 11% thinner for their height, and 9% thinner for their age. Exposure to armed conflicts further makes children 2.2, 0.8, and 2.6 percentage points more likely to be stunted, wasted, and underweight, respectively (i.e. 7.3%, 7.9%, and 10.2% increases compared to the benchmark averages of those unexposed to armed conflicts). In addition, the heterogeneity analyses suggest that children born to low-education mothers, children from relatively poor households, and children living in rural areas tend to bear the larger health setbacks. Given the long-lasting impacts of poor health in early childhood on adult outcomes, delivering nutrition interventions to children in conflict zones is of utmost importance, and extra attention should be given to children of disadvantaged backgrounds.

JEL codes: I10, I15, J13, O15