IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp16569.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Mothers at Peace: International Peacebuilding and Post-conflict Fertility

Author

Listed:
  • Bove, Vincenzo

    (University of Warwick)

  • Di Salvatore, Jessica

    (University of Warwick)

  • Elia, Leandro

    (Marche Polytechnic University)

  • Nistico, Roberto

    (University of Naples Federico II)

Abstract

A considerable body of empirical evidence indicates that conflict affects reproductive behaviour, often resulting in an increased fertility rate due to higher child mortality and limited access to healthcare services. However, we know much less about the effect of peace in a post-conflict setting. This study explores how the external provision of security affects fertility by focusing on the UN intervention in Liberia. Combining DHS birth history data with information on road distance to UN military compounds, we find that women living in the proximity of peacekeepers have lower fertility rates in the deployment period. This is due to parents prioritizing quality over quantity: peacekeepers improve maternal and child health and encourage family planning by enabling donors and humanitarian actors to deliver infrastructures and services and facilitating citizens' access to such services. We also provide evidence that UN mission revitalizes local economic activities, thus increasing the opportunity cost of childbearing.

Suggested Citation

  • Bove, Vincenzo & Di Salvatore, Jessica & Elia, Leandro & Nistico, Roberto, 2023. "Mothers at Peace: International Peacebuilding and Post-conflict Fertility," IZA Discussion Papers 16569, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16569
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp16569.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ghobarah, Hazem Adam & Huth, Paul & Russett, Bruce, 2003. "Civil Wars Kill and Maim People—Long After the Shooting Stops," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 97(2), pages 189-202, May.
    2. Heath, Rachel & Mushfiq Mobarak, A., 2015. "Manufacturing growth and the lives of Bangladeshi women," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 1-15.
    3. Raul Caruso & Prabin Khadka & Ilaria Petrarca & Roberto Ricciuti, 2017. "The economic impact of peacekeeping. Evidence from South Sudan," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 250-270, March.
    4. Quintana-Domeque, Climent & Ródenas-Serrano, Pedro, 2017. "The hidden costs of terrorism: The effects on health at birth," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 47-60.
    5. Vincenzo Bove & Leandro Elia, 2018. "Economic Development in Peacekeeping Host Countries," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 64(4), pages 712-728.
    6. Ryan Brown, 2018. "The Mexican Drug War and Early-Life Health: The Impact of Violent Crime on Birth Outcomes," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(1), pages 319-340, February.
    7. Deniz Cil & Hanne Fjelde & Lisa Hultman & Desirée Nilsson, 2020. "Mapping blue helmets: Introducing the Geocoded Peacekeeping Operations (Geo-PKO) dataset," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 57(2), pages 360-370, March.
    8. Victor Agadjanian & Ndola Prata, 2002. "War, peace, and fertility in Angola," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 39(2), pages 215-231, May.
    9. Blair, Robert A., 2021. "UN Peacekeeping and the Rule of Law," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 115(1), pages 51-68, February.
    10. Theodora-Ismene Gizelis & Xun Cao, 2021. "A security dividend: Peacekeeping and maternal health outcomes and access," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 58(2), pages 263-278, March.
    11. Valente, Christine, 2015. "Civil conflict, gender-specific fetal loss, and selection: A new test of the Trivers–Willard hypothesis," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 31-50.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vincenzo Bove & Jessica Di Salvatore & Leandro Elia & Roberto Nisticò, 2022. "Mothers at peace: post-conflict fertility and United Nations peacekeeping," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-126, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Michelle L. O’Brien, 2021. "The Consequences of the Tajikistani Civil War for Abortion and Miscarriage," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(5), pages 1061-1084, October.
    3. Jürges Hendrik & Westermaier Franz G., 2020. "Conflict Intensity and Birth Outcomes – Evidence from the West Bank," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 20(2), pages 1-8, April.
    4. Shirlee Lichtman-Sadot & Neta Benshalom-Tirosh & Eyal Sheiner, 2020. "Conflict, Rockets, and Birth Outcomes: Evidence from Israel’s Operation Protective Edge," Working Papers 2009, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics.
    5. Phadera, Lokendra, 2021. "Unfortunate Moms and Unfortunate Children: Impact of the Nepali Civil War on Women's Stature and Intergenerational Health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    6. Conte, Bruno & Piemontese, Lavinia & Tapsoba, Augustin, 2023. "The power of markets: Impact of desert locust invasions on child health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    7. Grossman, Daniel & Khalil, Umair & Ray, Arijit, 2019. "Terrorism and early childhood health outcomes: Evidence from Pakistan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 237(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Lin, Chung-Liang, 2021. "Postpartum medical utilization: The role of prenatal economic activity and living costs," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    9. Lautharte, Ildo, 2021. "Babies and Bandidos: Birth outcomes in pacified favelas of Rio de Janeiro," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    10. Goli, Srinivas & Mavisakalyan, Astghik & Rammohan, Anu & Vu, Loan, 2022. "Conflicts and son preference: Micro-level evidence from 58 countries," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    11. Dagnelie, Olivier & Luca, Giacomo Davide De & Maystadt, Jean-François, 2018. "Violence, selection and infant mortality in Congo," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 153-177.
    12. Berthelon, Matias & Kruger, Diana & Sanchez, Rafael, 2021. "Maternal stress during pregnancy and early childhood development," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    13. Fredah Guantai & Yoko Kijima, 2020. "Ethnic Violence and Birth Outcomes: Evidence From Exposure to the 1992 Conflict in Kenya," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(2), pages 423-444, April.
    14. Tapsoba, Augustin, 2023. "The cost of fear: Impact of violence risk on child health during conflict," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    15. Gudrun Østby & Henrik Urdal & Andreas Forø Tollefsen & Andreas Kotsadam & Ragnhild Belbo & Christin Ormhaug, 2018. "Organized Violence and Institutional Child Delivery: Micro-Level Evidence From Sub-Saharan Africa, 1989–2014," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(4), pages 1295-1316, August.
    16. Cortes, Darwin & Gómez, Catalina & Posso, Christian & Suarez, Gabriel, 2023. "Hunting Militias at All Cost: Urban Military Operation and Birth Outcomes," Documentos de Trabajo 20935, Universidad del Rosario.
    17. Magda Tsaneva & Pinar Mine Gunes, 2020. "The effect of violent crime on teenage pregnancy in Mexico," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 141-164, March.
    18. Victor Hugo de Oliveira & Ines Lee & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2023. "Natural Disasters and Early Human Development: Hurricane Catarina and Infant Health in Brazil," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 58(3), pages 819-851.
    19. Ryan Brown, 2020. "The Intergenerational Impact of Terror: Did the 9/11 Tragedy Impact the Initial Human Capital of the Next Generation?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(4), pages 1459-1481, August.
    20. Dagnelie, Olivier & De Luca, Giacomo & Maystadt, Jean-François, 2014. "Do girls pay the price of civil war? Violence and infant mortality in Congo:," IFPRI discussion papers 1374, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    conflict; fertility; maternal health; child health; UN operations;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • F50 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16569. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.