IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/ecdecc/doi10.1086-679069.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Land Mines on Child Health: Evidence from Angola

Author

Listed:
  • Jean-Louis Arcand
  • Aude-Sophie Rodella-Boitreaud
  • Matthias Rieger

Abstract

This article estimates the causal impact of land mines on child health in Angola, controlling for conflict exposure. Our identification strategy is based on the geography of the Angolan civil war. We posit that distance between communes and rebel headquarters is an exogenous driver of land mine contamination. We find that land mine intensity is positively correlated with the distance to a set of rebel headquarters. Instrumental variables estimates, based on two household surveys and the Landmines Impact Survey, indicate that land mines have large and negative effects on weight-for-age and height-for-age. We discuss our results with respect to the costs and benefits of land mine clearance, as well as the long-term costs of early malnutrition. We also compare the magnitude of our estimates with those of related studies on the impact of conflict on child health.

Suggested Citation

  • Jean-Louis Arcand & Aude-Sophie Rodella-Boitreaud & Matthias Rieger, 2015. "The Impact of Land Mines on Child Health: Evidence from Angola," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(2), pages 249-279.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/679069
    DOI: 10.1086/679069
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/679069
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/679069
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/679069?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. Richard Akresh & Sonia Bhalotra & Marinella Leone & Una Okonkwo Osili, 2012. "War and Stature: Growing Up during the Nigerian Civil War," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(3), pages 273-277, May.
    2. Mevlude Akbulut-Yuksel, 2014. "Children of War: The Long-Run Effects of Large-Scale Physical Destruction and Warfare on Children," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 49(3), pages 634-662.
    3. Alderman, Harold & Hoogeveen, Hans & Rossi, Mariacristina, 2006. "Reducing child malnutrition in Tanzania: Combined effects of income growth and program interventions," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 1-23, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Papaioannou, Elias & Chiovelli, Giorgio & Michalopoulos, Stelios, 2018. "Landmines and Spatial Development," CEPR Discussion Papers 13021, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Martin-Shields, Charles P. & Stojetz, Wolfgang, 2019. "Food security and conflict: Empirical challenges and future opportunities for research and policy making on food security and conflict," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 150-164.
    3. Le, Duong Trung & Pham, Thanh Minh & Polachek, Solomon, 2022. "The long-term health impact of Agent Orange: Evidence from the Vietnam War," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    4. Nguyen, Cuong & Tran, Tuyen & Vu, Huong, 2021. "The Long-Term Effects of War on Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Development: Evidence from Vietnam," MPRA Paper 111891, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Freudenreich, Hanna & Aladysheva, Anastasia & Brück, Tilman, 2022. "Weather shocks across seasons and child health: Evidence from a panel study in the Kyrgyz Republic," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    6. Prem, Mounu & Purroy, Miguel E & Vargas, Juan F., 2021. "Landmines: The Local Effects of Demining," Working papers 86, Red Investigadores de Economía.
    7. Balietti, Anca & Datta, Souvik & Veljanoska, Stefanija, 2022. "Air pollution and child development in India," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).

    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. Akresh, Richard & Lucchetti, Leonardo & Thirumurthy, Harsha, 2012. "Wars and child health: Evidence from the Eritrean–Ethiopian conflict," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 330-340.
    2. Tilman Brück & Patricia Justino & Philip Verwimp & Andrew Tedesco & Alexandra Avdeenko, 2013. "Measuring Conflict Exposure in Micro-Level Surveys," HiCN Working Papers 153, Households in Conflict Network.
    3. Bharati, Tushar, 2022. "The long shadow of the Kargil War: The effect of early-life stress on education," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    4. Richard Akresh & Sonia Bhalotra & Marinella Leone & Una Osili, 2023. "First- and Second-Generation Impacts of the Biafran War," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 58(2), pages 488-531.
    5. Roxana Gutiérrez-Romero, 2021. "Victims of electoral violence and their children experience irreversible stunting: The long-term welfare effects of electoral violence," HiCN Working Papers 364, Households in Conflict Network.
    6. Patricia Justino, 2017. "Food Security, Peacebuilding and Gender Equality: Conceptual Framework and Future Directions," HiCN Working Papers 257, Households in Conflict Network.
    7. Jean-Pierre Tranchant & Patricia Justino & Cathérine Müller, 2014. "Political Violence, Drought and Child Malnutrition: Empirical Evidence from Andhra Pradesh, India," HiCN Working Papers 173, Households in Conflict Network.
    8. Armand Mboutchouang Kountchou & Soazic Elise Wang Sonne & Gadom Djal Gadom, 2019. "The Local Impact of Armed Conflict on Children’s Nutrition and Health Outcomes: Evidence from Chad," HiCN Working Papers 301, Households in Conflict Network.
    9. Davide Bellucci & Giulia Fuochi & Pierluigi Conzo, 2018. "Ain't got no, I got life: Childhood exposure to WW2 and financial risk taking in adult life," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 570, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    10. Kim, Young-Il & Lee, Jungmin, 2014. "The long-run impact of a traumatic experience on risk aversion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 174-186.
    11. van Ewijk, Reyn & Lindeboom, Maarten, 2022. "Selective mortality and fertility and long run health effects of prenatal wartime exposure," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    12. Massimiliano Bratti & Mariapia Mendola & Alfonso Miranda, 2015. "Hard to Forget: the Long-Lasting Impact of War on Mental Health," Development Working Papers 388, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    13. Maqsood Aslam & Etienne Farvaque & Muhammad Azmat Hayat, 2022. "One partition, many divisions? Ethnicities and education in Pakistan," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 16(2), pages 405-428, May.
    14. Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude, 2017. "War during childhood: The long run effects of warfare on health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 117-130.
    15. Tilman Brück & Patricia Justino & Philip Verwimp & Alexandra Avdeenko & Andrew Tedesco, 2016. "Measuring Violent Conflict in Micro-level Surveys: Current Practices and Methodological Challenges," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank Group, vol. 31(1), pages 29-58.
    16. Acosta,Pablo Ariel & Baez Ramirez,Javier Eduardo & Caruso,German Daniel & Carcach,Carlos, 2020. "The Scars of Civil War: The Long-Term Welfare Effects of the Salvadoran Armed Conflict," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9430, The World Bank.
    17. Tillman Hönig, 2021. "The legacy of conflict: aggregate evidence from Sierra Leone," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-104, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Tranchant, Jean-Pierre & Justino, Patricia & Müller, Cathérine, 2020. "Political violence, adverse shocks and child malnutrition: Empirical evidence from Andhra Pradesh, India," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    19. Tushar Bharati, 2021. "The Long Shadow of the Kargil War: The Effect of Early-life Stress on Education," HiCN Working Papers 347, Households in Conflict Network.
    20. Li, Jian & Koulovatianos, Christos, 2020. "The long shadows of war in China: Battle shocks in early life and health/wealth accumulation," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).

    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:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/679069. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/EDCC .

    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: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/EDCC .

    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.