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

Author

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  • Nidhiya Menon

    (Department of Economics & IBS, MS 021, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454-9110)

  • Yana van der Meulen Rodgers

    (Women�s and Gender Studies Department, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901)

Abstract

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 selfemployment decisions, and they hold for smaller sub-samples that condition on husband�s migration status and women�s status as widows or household heads. Numerous robustness checks of the difference-in-difference estimates based on alternative empirical methods provide compelling evidence that women�s likelihood of employment increased as a consequence of the conflict.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:hic:wpaper:104
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Joyce P. Jacobsen, 2012. "Gender and the Economic Impacts of War," Wesleyan Economics Working Papers 2012-008, Wesleyan University, Department of Economics.
    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. Shemyakina, Olga N., 2011. "The labor market, education and armed conflict in Tajikistan," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5738, The World Bank.
    6. 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).

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