IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hic/wpaper/104.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

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

Author

Listed:
  • 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
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hicn.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/wp1041.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    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. 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.
    3. Karen Macours, 2011. "Increasing inequality and civil conflict in Nepal," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 63(1), pages 1-26, January.
    4. 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.
    5. Sharma, Kishor, 2006. "The political economy of civil war in Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1237-1253, July.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. World Bank, 2004. "Social Change in Conflict-Affected Areas of Nepal," World Bank Publications - Reports 11281, The World Bank Group.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. Sonali Deraniyagala, 2005. "The Political Economy of Civil Conflict in Nepal," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 47-62.
    17. 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.
    18. 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.
    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    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. Shemyakina, Olga N., 2011. "The labor market, education and armed conflict in Tajikistan," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5738, The World Bank.
    5. Joyce P. Jacobsen, 2012. "Gender and the Economic Impacts of War," Wesleyan Economics Working Papers 2012-008, Wesleyan University, Department of Economics.
    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).

    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, 2010. "War and Women’s Work: Evidence from the Conflict in Nepal," Working Papers 19, Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School.
    2. Nepal, Apsara Karki & Halla, Martin & Stillman, Steven, 2018. "Violent Conflict and the Child Quantity-Quality Tradeoff," IZA Discussion Papers 11690, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    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. François Libois, 2016. "Households in Times of War : Adaptation Strategies during the Nepal Civil War," Working Papers 1603, University of Namur, Department of Economics.
    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. 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.
    8. Raut, Nirmal Kumar & Tanaka, Ryuichi, 2021. "Monitoring health services delivery: Evidence from civil conflict in Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    9. 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.
    10. Christine Valente, 2014. "Education and Civil Conflict in Nepal," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(2), pages 354-383.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. DeRiviere, Linda, 2008. "Have we come a long way? Using the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics to revisit the 'pin money' theory," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2340-2367, December.
    15. 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).
    16. Fonner, Robert & Bohara, Alok K & Archambault, Stephen, 2018. "Migration Choices during Conflict in Nepal: Pull Forces and Landscape Interactions," International Journal of Development and Conflict, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, vol. 8(2), pages 46-61.
    17. Shubha Chakravarty & Mattias Lundberg & Plamen Nikolov & Juliane Zenker, 2015. "The Role of Training Programs for Youth Employment in Nepal," World Bank Publications - Reports 23243, The World Bank Group.
    18. Tiwari, Sailesh & Bhattarai, Keshav, 2011. "Migration, remittances and forests : disentangling the impact of population and economic growth on forests," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5907, The World Bank.
    19. Oliver Vanden Eynde, 2018. "Targets of Violence: Evidence from India's Naxalite Conflict," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(609), pages 887-916, March.

    More about this item

    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:hic:wpaper:104. 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: Tilman Brück or the person in charge or the person in charge or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hicn.org/ .

    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.