Civil war, crop failure, and the health status of young children
By: by Richard Akresh, Philip Verwimp
Contributors: Verwimp, Philip
Series: Discussion paper -- no. 2359; Discussion paper (Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit : Online) -- no. 2359
Publisher: IZA
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Bonn, Germany
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "Economic shocks at birth have lasting impacts on children's health several years after the shock. We calculate height for age z-scores for children under age five using data from a Rwandan nationally representative household survey conducted in 1992. We 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. We find that girls born after a shock in a region experiencing these events exhibit 0.72 standard deviations lower height for age z-scores and the impact is worse for poor households. There is no impact of these shocks on boys' health status. Results are robust to using household level production and rainfall shocks as alternative measures of crop failure. The analysis also contributes to the debate on the economic conditions prevailing on the eve of the Rwandan genocide"--Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 12/13/2006.

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