COLLATERAL DAMAGE: Civil Conflict and Child Mortality (Review Completed - Accepted)
Civil wars are the outcome of institutional failures. Child and infant mortality risk is impacted during civil war through
reductions in household’s income and assets and through mother’s health, nutrition and stress levels. When born, children
may suer from lack of services and an environment of diseases. Using DHS and the Prio Uppsala Battle Deaths for
Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Peru, the eect of conict on infant and child mortality is estimated. The
identication strategy is based on the classication of the child’s birthyear according to periods of peace or conict. Fixed
eects regressions nd that conict is more harmful during the rst year of life and that conict intensity matters. The
ndings suggest that governments engaged in civil war ghting should nd ways to provide health and nutrition assistance
to pregnant women and to make sure that newborns have access to health and sanitation services.
Keywords: Child Mortality, Civil War, Latin America, infant mortality