1988. It was one of the bloodiest and longest battles that occurred in the Middle East in the 20<sup>th</sup> century. On September 22, 1980, Iraqi armed forces launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Islamic Republic of Iran. The war was ended by a 1988 cease-fire. The conflict caused devastating effects on these two nations and their people, with total casualties of both sides estimated to range from 1 million to 2 million.

To quantitatively evaluate the long-lasting effects of the war on children aged 6 to 12 during the war during the 1980-1988 period, this study uses the Iraq Household Socio-Economic Surveys (IHSES) 2006-2007 and the event study method. The treatment event cohort is 1968 because the children would reach the age of 12 in 1980 when the Islamic Republic of Iran–Iraq war started. The treatment cohorts include individuals born between 1969 and 1981.

We find that the Islamic Republic of Iran–Iraq war has adverse impacts on labor market performance. The war decreases the social welfare of individuals who were exposed to the war during the school-age years. Specifically, the war decreases the probability of men accessing social security, pension plan, health care, paid leave and job permanence while we find little impact on women. However, we find significant and negative impacts of the war on wages for both men and women. Furthermore men, who were exposed to the war during their school-age years are more likely to work in a hazardous job and without air conditioning; we find no evidence for the women. We document the education channel through which the war affects labor market outcomes. We expect that the war would decrease educational attainment, leading to negative impacts on labor market outcomes. Indeed, the war decreases the educational level of the cohorts of 1971-1981 for both men and women. The Islamic Republic of Iran–Iraq conflict had a greater impact on female education than on male education. The illiterate rate of women increases due to the conflict while we find no evidence of the impact of the war on the illiteracy of men. Our findings are robust to a variety of robustness checks and falsification tests.

Our study makes several contributions to the nascent literature on the long-term impacts of war on school-age children. First, our study focuses on Iraq. Existing studies on the effects of war on labor market outcomes and educational attainment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are rare. This study will fill in this gap by considering the impact of the Islamic Republic of Iran– Iraq war. Iraq presents a remarkable study case. Poverty remains one of Iraq's most pressing social issues, the poverty rate was 22.9 percent in 2007, this rate is still high, and exceeds 40 percent in some governorates, meanwhile 11.3 percent of girls and 5.4 percent of boys aged between 6 and 11 years old did not participate in primary school in 2013 <mark>(UNICEF, 2014).</mark> Second, most of the existing studies focus on the early exposure to the war. In other words, these studies examine the long-term impacts of war on children who were in utero and in their early childhood years during the war. Little is known about the long-term effects of war on children, who were exposed to the war during school-age years of 6 to 12. Therefore, our study sharpens understanding of the longterm impacts of war on school-age children in their later adulthood. Third, we provide heterogeneous analysis. Specifically, we examine the long-term impacts of the war on male and female labor market outcomes, and male and female educational attainment. Iraqi women now face insufficient educational and health care possibility, limited labor market access, as well as high levels of abuse and discrimination. These situations are frequently worsened by cultural and 3