Unfortunate Moms and Unfortunate Children: Impact of the Nepali Civil War on Women's Stature and Intergenerational Health

Abstract

I analyze the long-term health impacts of Nepal's 1996-2006 civil conflict. I use information on monthly conflict incidents at the village level, which allows me to identify the effects of exposure to conflict more accurately than prior studies. I exploit the heterogeneity in conflict intensity across villages and birth cohorts to document the impacts on adult stature and intergenerational health. I find that childhood exposure to conflict and, in particular, exposure starting in infancy, negatively impacts attained adult height. Each additional month of exposure decreases a women's adult height by 1.36 millimeters. The impacts are not limited to first-generation - I find that a mother's exposure to conflict in her childhood is also detrimental to her child's health. Mothers exposed to conflict during their childhood have more children and live in less wealthy households, likely reducing their ability to invest during their children's critical period of physical development.