IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/oxdevs/v37y2009i3p289-309.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Violent Conflicts on Households: What Do We Know and What Should We Know about War Widows?

Author

Listed:
  • Tilman Bruck
  • Kati Schindler

Abstract

This paper analyses how mass violent conflict and the legacy of conflict affect households in developing countries. It does so by pointing out how violent conflict impairs a household's core functions, its boundaries, its choice of coping strategies and its well-being. The paper contributes to the literature on the economics of conflict, reconstruction and vulnerability in three ways. First, it addresses explicitly the level of analysis in the context of conflict by contrasting strengths and weaknesses of a unitary approach to the household and extending it to intra-household and group issues. Second, it identifies important research gaps in this field. Third, it highlights the economic situation of war widows in conflict-affected countries and discusses a case study of widows of the Rwandan genocide.

Suggested Citation

  • Tilman Bruck & Kati Schindler, 2009. "The Impact of Violent Conflicts on Households: What Do We Know and What Should We Know about War Widows?," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 289-309.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:37:y:2009:i:3:p:289-309
    DOI: 10.1080/13600810903108321
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13600810903108321
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13600810903108321?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shemyakina, Olga, 2011. "The effect of armed conflict on accumulation of schooling: Results from Tajikistan," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 186-200, July.
    2. Christopher Udry & Timothy G. Conley, 2004. "Social Networks in Ghana," Working Papers 888, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    3. Frances Stewart, "undated". "The Root Causes of Conflict: Some Conclusions," QEH Working Papers qehwps16, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    4. Michael D. Hurd & David A. Wise, 1989. "The Wealth and Poverty of Widows: Assets Before and After the Husband's Death," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Aging, pages 177-200, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Patricia Justino & Philip Verwimp, 2013. "Poverty Dynamics, Violent Conflict, and Convergence in R wanda," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 59(1), pages 66-90, March.
    6. Mather, David & Donovan, Cynthia & Jayne, Thomas S. & Weber, Michael T. & Chapoto, Antony & Mazhangara, Edward & Bailey, Linda & Yoo, Kyeongwon & Yamano, Takashi & Mghenyi, Elliot W., 2004. "A Cross-Country Analysis of Household Responses to Adult Mortality in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications For HIV/AIDS Mitigation And Rural Development Policies," Food Security International Development Working Papers 54571, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    7. McKay, Andrew & Loveridge, Scott, 2005. "Exploring The Paradox Of Rwandan Agricultural Household Income And Nutritional Outcomes In 1990 And 2000," Staff Paper Series 11582, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    8. Robert H. Bates, 1999. "Ethnicity, Capital Formation, and Conflict," CID Working Papers 27, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    9. Amartya Sen, 1987. "Gender and Cooperative Conflicts," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-1987-018, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Michael D. Hurd & David A. Wise, 1996. "Changing Social Security Survivorship Benefits and the Poverty of Widows," NBER Chapters, in: The Economic Effects of Aging in the United States and Japan, pages 319-332, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Paul Collier & V. L. Elliott & Håvard Hegre & Anke Hoeffler & Marta Reynal-Querol & Nicholas Sambanis, 2003. "Breaking the Conflict Trap : Civil War and Development Policy," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13938, April.
    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. Tilman Brück & Kati Schindler, 2008. "The Impact of Conflict and Fragility on Households: A Conceptual Framework with Reference to Widows," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-83, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Ali,Rubaba & Barra,Alvaro Federico & Berg,Claudia N. & Damania,Richard & Nash,John D. & Russ,Jason Daniel, 2015. "Infrastructure in conflict-prone and fragile environments : evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7273, The World Bank.
    3. Patricia Justino, 2006. "On the Links between Violent Conflict and Chronic Poverty: How Much Do We Really Know?," HiCN Working Papers 18, Households in Conflict Network.
    4. Patricia Justino, 2009. "The Impact of Armed Civil Conflict on Household Welfare and Policy Responses," Research Working Papers 12, MICROCON - A Micro Level Analysis of Violent Conflict.
    5. Mayra Buvinic & Monica Das Gupta & Ursula Casabonne & Philip Verwimp, 2013. "Violent Conflict and Gender Inequality: An Overview," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 110-138, February.
    6. Christopher Blattman & Edward Miguel, 2010. "Civil War," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 3-57, March.
    7. An, Jiafu & Duan, Tinghua & Hou, Wenxuan & Liu, Xianda, 2020. "The legacy of wars around the world: Evidence from military directors," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    8. Abay, Kibrom A. & Tafere, Kibrom & Berhane, Guush & Chamberlin, Jordan & Abay, Mehari H., 2023. "Near-real-time welfare and livelihood impacts of an active war: Evidence from Ethiopia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    9. Ana Luiza Cortez & Namsuk Kim, 2012. "Conflict and the identification of the Least Developed Countries: Theoretical and statistical considerations," CDP Background Papers 013, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    10. Carlos Bozzoli & Tilman Brück & Tony Muhumuza, 2012. "Movers or Stayers? Understanding the Drivers of IDP Camp Decongestion during Post-Conflict Recovery in Uganda," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1197, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    11. Patricia Justino, 2012. "Nutrition, Governance and Violence: A Framework for the Analysis of Resilience and Vulnerability to Food Insecurity in Contexts of Violent Conflict," HiCN Working Papers 132, Households in Conflict Network.
    12. Tilman Br�ck & Patricia Justino & Philip Verwimp & Andrew Tedesco & Alexandra Avdeenko, 2013. "Measuring Conflict Exposure in Micro-Level Surveys," HiCN Working Papers 153, Households in Conflict Network.
    13. Serneels , Pieter & Verpoorten , Marijke, 2012. "The impact of armed conflict on economic performance. Evidence from Rwanda," NEPS Working Papers 5/2012, Network of European Peace Scientists.
    14. Oyvat, Cem & Tekgüç, Hasan, 2019. "Ethnic fractionalization, conflict and educational development in Turkey," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 41-52.
    15. Korn, Tobias & Stemmler, Henry, 2022. "Your Pain, My Gain? On the Trade Relocation Effects from Civil Conflict," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264095, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    16. Nicholas Sambanis, 2002. "A Review of Recent Advances and Future Directions in the Quantitative Literature on Civil War," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 215-243.
    17. Florence Kondylis & Valerie Mueller, 2014. "Economic consequences of conflict and environmental displacement," Chapters, in: Robert E.B. Lucas (ed.), International Handbook on Migration and Economic Development, chapter 14, pages 388-424, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Mohamed, Issam A.W., 2011. "Challenges of formal social security systems in Sudan," MPRA Paper 31611, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Nathan Fiala, 2015. "Economic Consequences of Forced Displacement," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(10), pages 1275-1293, October.
    20. Searing, Elizabeth A.M. & Rios-Avila, Fernando & Lecy, Jesse D., 2013. "The impact of psychological trauma on wages in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 165-173.

    More about this item

    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:taf:oxdevs:v:37:y:2009:i:3:p:289-309. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CODS20 .

    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.