Civil War, Crop Failure, and Child Stunting in Rwanda

34 Pages Posted: 20 Apr 2016

See all articles by Richard Akresh

Richard Akresh

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Philip Verwimp

Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) - Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management; Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) - European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics (ECARES)

Tom Bundervoet

Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) - MOSI

Date Written: April 1, 2007

Abstract

Economic shocks at birth have lasting effects on children's health several years after the shock. The authors calculate height for age z-scores for children under age five using data from a Rwandan nationally representative household survey conducted in 1992. They exploit district and time variation in crop failure and civil conflict to measure the impact of exogenous shocks that children experience at birth on their height several years later. They find that boys and girls born after the shock in regions experiencing civil conflict are both negatively affected with height for age z-scores 0.30 and 0.72 standard deviations lower, respectively. Conversely, only girls are negatively affected by crop failure, with these girls exhibiting 0.41 standard deviation lower height for age z-scores and the impact is worse for girls in poor households. Results are robust to using sibling difference estimators, household level production, and rainfall shocks as alternative measures of crop failure.

Keywords: Youth and Governance, Population Policies, Rural Poverty Reduction, Children and Youth, Adolescent Health

Suggested Citation

Akresh, Richard and Verwimp, Philip and Bundervoet, Tom, Civil War, Crop Failure, and Child Stunting in Rwanda (April 1, 2007). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4208, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=980826

Richard Akresh (Contact Author)

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ( email )

601 E John St
Champaign, IL Champaign 61820
United States

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Philip Verwimp

Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) - Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management ( email )

19 Av Franklin Roosevelt
1050
Brussels
Belgium

Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) - European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics (ECARES) ( email )

Ave. Franklin D Roosevelt, 50 - C.P. 114
Brussels, B-1050
Belgium

Tom Bundervoet

Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) - MOSI

Brussels
Belgium

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