Households in Times of War : Adaptation Strategies during the Nepal Civil War

This paper analyses short and medium term consequences of the Nepalese civil war on rural households livelihoods and on the inter-group distribution of income. Conclusions rely on two very rich datasets: the Nepal Living Standards Survey collected before, during and after the war and data on the number of killings by month and village during the eleven years of the conflict. Using the survey timing as a quasi-natural experiment, results indicate that in the short-run all households loose, but high castes by a larger extent. Short-term coping strategies determine medium term diverging recovery paths. Non-high castes allocate more labour in agriculture and loose more in the medium term. High castes diversify their income sources, notably by relying on migration, which allows them to recover.