How Does Violence Force Displacement during Active Conflict ? Evidence from theRepublic of Yemen

The ways in which violence forces displacement are not well understood given difficulties incollecting data during conflict. This paper investigates this issue during the Republic of Yemen's conflict,which has led to a large forced displacement crisis. First, it demonstrates that violence significantly escalatedleading up to and following displacement in the districts from which displaced households fled, and this escalationexceeded that of households that did not become displaced and that of regions to which displaced households moved.Second, the paper demonstrates that the escalation of violence around the time of displacement varied by type ofviolence. Violence from ground battles escalated leading up to and following displacement- the type of violence with thelargest number of fatalities per violent incident and that is most associated with the capture of territory; but otherprevalent types of violence either peaked prior to displacement or did not appear to be strongly associatedwith displacement. And third, it demonstrates that there was a significant amount of heterogeneity in the violenceexperienced by households before displacement. A significant share of displaced households fled during times of noviolence, but violence escalated in the regions from which these households fled following displacement. The paperargues that the last result is likely explained, in part, by these households being more averse to potential violencethan other Yemeni households were. Combined, these results corroborate that violence is pivotal to forced displacement,but further illustrate the complexities of deciding whether and when to become displaced.