[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/brd/wpaper/19.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

War and Women’s Work: Evidence from the Conflict in Nepal

Author

Listed:
  • Nidhiya Menon

    (Department of Economics, Brandeis University)

  • Yana van der Meulen Rodgers

    (Rutgers University)

Abstract
In a study of the effect of war on women’s work, this paper examines how Nepal’s 1996-2006 civil conflict affected women’s decisions to engage in employment. Using three waves of Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, we employ a difference-in-difference approach to identify the impact of war on women’s employment decisions. Results indicate that as a result of the Maoist-led insurgency, women’s employment probabilities were substantially higher in 2001 and 2006 relative to the outbreak of war in 1996. These employment results also hold for self-employment decisions, and they hold for smaller sub-samples that condition on husband’s migration status and women’s status as widows or household heads. Robustness checks of the difference-in-difference estimates based on alternative empirical methods provide substantial evidence that women’s likelihood of employment increased as a consequence of the conflict.

Suggested Citation

  • Nidhiya Menon & Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, 2010. "War and Women’s Work: Evidence from the Conflict in Nepal," Working Papers 19, Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School.
  • Handle: RePEc:brd:wpaper:19
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.brandeis.edu/economics/RePEc/brd/doc/Brandeis_WP19.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2010
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joshua D. Angrist & Adriana D. Kugler, 2008. "Rural Windfall or a New Resource Curse? Coca, Income, and Civil Conflict in Colombia," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(2), pages 191-215, May.
    2. Sonali Deraniyagala, 2005. "The Political Economy of Civil Conflict in Nepal," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 47-62.
    3. Michael Lokshin & Elena Glinskaya, 2009. "The Effect of Male Migration on Employment Patterns of Women in Nepal," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 23(3), pages 481-507, November.
    4. Dex, Shirley, et al, 1995. "Cross-National Comparisons of the Labour Force Participation of Women Married to Unemployed Men," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 47(4), pages 611-635, October.
    5. Ibáñez, Ana Mari­a & Vélez, Carlos Eduardo, 2008. "Civil Conflict and Forced Migration: The Micro Determinants and Welfare Losses of Displacement in Colombia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 659-676, April.
    6. S. Mansoob Murshed & Scott Gates, 2005. "Spatial–Horizontal Inequality and the Maoist Insurgency in Nepal," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(1), pages 121-134, February.
    7. Sonia Bhalotra & Marcela Umaña-Aponte, 2010. "The Dynamics of Women’s Labour Supply in Developing Countries," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 10/235, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    8. Finegan, T. Aldrich & Margo, Robert A., 1994. "Work Relief and the Labor Force Participation of Married Women in 1940," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(1), pages 64-84, March.
    9. World Bank, 2004. "Social Change in Conflict-Affected Areas of Nepal," World Bank Publications - Reports 11281, The World Bank Group.
    10. Sharma, Kishor, 2006. "The political economy of civil war in Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1237-1253, July.
    11. Karen Macours, 2011. "Increasing inequality and civil conflict in Nepal," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 63(1), pages 1-26, January.
    12. Nidhiya Menon, 2009. "Rainfall Uncertainty and Occupational Choice in Agricultural Households of Rural Nepal," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(6), pages 864-888.
    13. Sanjaya Acharya, 2008. "Poverty alleviation and the industrial employment of women (the case of Nepal)," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(5), pages 670-685.
    14. Philip Verwimp, 2003. "Testing the Double-Genocide Thesis for Central and Southern Rwanda," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 47(4), pages 423-442, August.
    15. Susan Parker & Emmanuel Skoufias, 2004. "The added worker effect over the business cycle: evidence from urban Mexico," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(10), pages 625-630.
    16. Meyer, Bruce D, 1995. "Natural and Quasi-experiments in Economics," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(2), pages 151-161, April.
    17. Quy-Toan Do & Lakshmi Iyer, 2010. "Geography, poverty and conflict in Nepal," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 47(6), pages 735-748, November.
    18. Alok K. Bohara & Neil J. Mitchell & Mani Nepal, 2006. "Opportunity, Democracy, and the Exchange of Political Violence," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 50(1), pages 108-128, February.
    19. Ghani, Ejaz & Iyer, Lakshmi, 2010. "Conflict and Development—Lessons from South Asia," World Bank - Economic Premise, The World Bank, issue 31, pages 1-8, September.
    20. Prieto-Rodriguez, Juan & Rodriguez-Gutierrez, Cesar, 2003. "Participation of married women in the European labor markets and the "added worker effect"," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 429-446, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:zbw:rwirep:0378 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Ciarli, Tommaso & Kofol, Chiara & Menon, Carlo, 2015. "Business as unusual. An explanation of the increase of private economic activity in high-conflict areas in Afghanistan," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 65015, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Patricia Justino & Olga Shemyakina, 2012. "Remittances and labor supply in post-conflict Tajikistan," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-28, December.
    4. Marc Rockmore, 2017. "The Cost of Fear: The Welfare Effect of the Risk of Violence in Northern Uganda," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(3), pages 650-669.
    5. Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude & Khamis, Melanie & Yuksel, Mutlu, 2013. "For Better or for Worse: The Long-Term Effects of Postwar Reconstruction on Family Formation," IZA Discussion Papers 7239, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Christine Valente, 2014. "Education and Civil Conflict in Nepal," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(2), pages 354-383.
    7. Manuel Fern�ndez & Ana Mar�a Ib��ez & Ximena Pe�a, 2014. "Adjusting the Labour Supply to Mitigate Violent Shocks: Evidence from Rural Colombia," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(8), pages 1135-1155, August.
    8. Maren M. Michaelsen, 2012. "Mental Health and Labour Supply: Evidence from Mexico�s Ongoing Violent Conflicts," HiCN Working Papers 117, Households in Conflict Network.
    9. Joyce P. Jacobsen, 2012. "Gender and the Economic Impacts of War," Wesleyan Economics Working Papers 2012-008, Wesleyan University, Department of Economics.
    10. Parlow, Anton, 2012. "Armed conflict and children's health - exploring new directions: The case of Kashmir," MPRA Paper 38033, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Marc Rockmore, 2012. "Living Within Conflicts: Risk of Violence and Livelihood Portfolios," HiCN Working Papers 121, Households in Conflict Network.
    12. Christine Valente, 2011. "What Did the Maoists Ever Do for Us? Education and Marriage of Women Exposed to Civil Conflict in Nepal," HiCN Working Papers 105, Households in Conflict Network.
    13. Patricia Justino & Ivan Cardona & Rebecca Mitchell & Catherine M�ller, 2012. "Quantifying the Impact of Women�s Participation in Post-Conflict Economic Recovery," HiCN Working Papers 131, Households in Conflict Network.
    14. Parlow, Anton, 2011. "Education and armed conflict: the Kashmir insurgency in the nineties," MPRA Paper 38010, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Anton Parlow, 2012. "Armed Conflict and Children�s Health � Exploring new directions: The case of Kashmir," HiCN Working Papers 119, Households in Conflict Network.
    16. Shemyakina, Olga N., 2011. "The labor market, education and armed conflict in Tajikistan," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5738, The World Bank.
    17. Maren M. Michaelsen, 2012. "Mental Health and Labour Supply – Evidence from Mexico‘s Ongoing Violent Conflicts," Ruhr Economic Papers 0378, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    18. François Libois, 2016. "Households in Times of War : Adaptation Strategies during the Nepal Civil War," Working Papers 1603, University of Namur, Department of Economics.
    19. Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude & Khamis, Melanie & Yuksel, Mutlu, 2011. "Rubble Women: The Long-Term Effects of Postwar Reconstruction on Female Labor Market Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 6148, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Nidhiya Menon & Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, 2013. "Credit and self-employment," Chapters, in: Deborah M. Figart & Tonia L. Warnecke (ed.), Handbook of Research on Gender and Economic Life, chapter 22, pages 359-377, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    21. Michaelsen, Maren M., 2012. "Mental Health and Labour Supply – Evidence from Mexico's Ongoing Violent Conflicts," Ruhr Economic Papers 378, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nidhiya Menon & Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, 2011. "War and Women�s Work: Evidence from the Conflict in Nepal," HiCN Working Papers 104, Households in Conflict Network.
    2. Apsara Karki Nepal & Martin Halla & Steven Stillman, 2018. "Violent Conflict and the Child Quantity-Quality Tradeoff," Economics working papers 2018-15, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    3. Sharma, Hari & Gibson, John, 2020. "Escalation of civil war in Nepal: The role of poverty, inequality and caste polarisation," MPRA Paper 101450, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Christine Valente, 2011. "What Did the Maoists Ever Do for Us? Education and Marriage of Women Exposed to Civil Conflict in Nepal," HiCN Working Papers 105, Households in Conflict Network.
    5. Christopher Blattman & Edward Miguel, 2010. "Civil War," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 3-57, March.
    6. Valente, Christine, 2015. "Civil conflict, gender-specific fetal loss, and selection: A new test of the Trivers–Willard hypothesis," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 31-50.
    7. Mitra, Anirban & Mitra, Shabana, 2020. "Redistribution of Economic Resources due to Conflict: The Maoist Uprising in Nepal," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 578-604.
    8. Phadera, Lokendra, 2021. "Unfortunate Moms and Unfortunate Children: Impact of the Nepali Civil War on Women's Stature and Intergenerational Health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    9. François Libois, 2016. "Households in Times of War : Adaptation Strategies during the Nepal Civil War," Working Papers 1603, University of Namur, Department of Economics.
    10. Chakravarty, Shubha & Lundberg, Mattias & Nikolov, Plamen & Zenker, Juliane, 2019. "Vocational training programs and youth labor market outcomes: Evidence from Nepal," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 71-110.
    11. Christopher Blattman, 2009. "Civil War: A Review of Fifty Years of Research," Working Papers id:2231, eSocialSciences.
    12. de Juan, Alexander, 2012. "Mapping Political Violence – The Approaches and Conceptual Challenges of Subnational Geospatial Analyses of Intrastate Conflict," GIGA Working Papers 211, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    13. Raut, Nirmal Kumar & Tanaka, Ryuichi, 2021. "Monitoring health services delivery: Evidence from civil conflict in Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    14. Pivovarova, Margarita & Swee, Eik Leong, 2015. "Quantifying the Microeconomic Effects of War Using Panel Data: Evidence From Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 308-321.
    15. Christine Valente, 2014. "Education and Civil Conflict in Nepal," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(2), pages 354-383.
    16. Tanu Goyal, 2019. "The Role and Changing Paradigm of India’s Assistance to Nepal: Case of the Education Sector," Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) Working Paper 377, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi, India.
    17. Bhattacharya, Prasad Sankar & Chowdhury, Prabal Roy & Rahman, Habibur, 2023. "Does credit availability mitigate domestic conflict?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    18. Tilman Br�ck & Patricia Justino & Philip Verwimp & Andrew Tedesco & Alexandra Avdeenko, 2013. "Measuring Conflict Exposure in Micro-Level Surveys," HiCN Working Papers 153, Households in Conflict Network.
    19. He, Lulu, 2019. "Identifying local needs for post-disaster recovery in Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 52-62.
    20. Quy-Toan Do & Shantayanan Devarajan & Anne Brockmeyer & Lili Mottaghi & Clement Joubert & Kartika Bhatia & Mohamed Abdel-Jelil, "undated". "Middle East and North Africa Economic Monitor, October 2016," World Bank Publications - Reports 25087, The World Bank Group.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:brd:wpaper:19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Andrea Luna (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/gsbraus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.