The long-term effects of civil conflicts on education, earnings, and fertility: Evidence from Cambodia

•Civil conflicts in Cambodia during the 1970s have long-term negative impacts.•Conflict exposure during primary education years reduces education of individuals.•The effect of conflict exposure on education channels into lower labor productivity.•The effect of conflict exposure on education channels...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Comparative Economics 2016-08, Vol.44 (3), p.800-820
Main Authors: Islam, Asadul, Ouch, Chandarany, Smyth, Russell, Wang, Liang Choon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cambodia
Civil conflict
Civil war
Earnings
Economic impact
Education
Educational attainment
Fertility
Genocide
Income
Labor productivity
Returns to schooling
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:•Civil conflicts in Cambodia during the 1970s have long-term negative impacts.•Conflict exposure during primary education years reduces education of individuals.•The effect of conflict exposure on education channels into lower labor productivity.•The effect of conflict exposure on education channels into higher female fertility.•Conflict-driven schooling disruption adversely affects long-term labor productivity. This paper examines the long-term effects of exposure to civil war and genocide on the educational attainment, earnings, and fertility of individuals in Cambodia. Given the well-documented causal links between schooling and labor productivity, it is surprising that past studies show that civil conflicts reduce educational attainment, but generally not earnings of individuals. Using variation in the degree of Cambodians’ exposure to civil conflicts during primary school age, we find that disruption to primary education during civil conflicts decreases educational attainment and earnings, increases fertility, and has negligible effects on health of individuals several decades later. Our findings suggest that the effect of conflict on schooling disruption has adverse consequences on long-term labor productivity and economic development.
ISSN:0147-5967
1095-7227
DOI:10.1016/j.jce.2015.05.001