Working Papers
Terrorism, Mental Health, Risky Behaviors and Human Capital: Evidence from Iraq
No.
1440
Publisher
ERF
Date
December, 2020
Topic
D6. Welfare Economics
D7. Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
I3. Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
This paper investigates the causal impact of terrorism on mental health, risky behaviors and human capital accumulation. Using a unique identification strategy by merging geocoded data on terrorism from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) with unique data on young Iraqi individuals born between 1979-1999, the paper shows that individuals exposed to terror attacks in childhood are affected negatively in terms of mental health, and are more likely to engage in risky behavior (e.g., smoking and alcohol consumption). They are also less likely to finish compulsory and secondary education, compared to those who experienced terror at later stages of life. Heterogeneity analyses show that the negative impact on education attainment is more pronounced among boys and children of higher socio-economic background.
Research Fellows
Ahmed Elsayed
Senior Research Associate, IZA- Institute of Labor...