Stress and birth outcomes : evidence from terrorist attacks in Colombia

This paper estimates the impact of random terrorist attacks (landmines) in Colombia on the health of babies born between 1998 and 2003. The results suggest that these types of terrorist activities that occur during a woman's first trimester of pregnancy have a negative and significant impact on...

Full description

Autores:
Camacho González, Adriana
Tipo de recurso:
Work document
Fecha de publicación:
2007
Institución:
Universidad de los Andes
Repositorio:
Séneca: repositorio Uniandes
Idioma:
eng
OAI Identifier:
oai:repositorio.uniandes.edu.co:1992/8111
Acceso en línea:
http://hdl.handle.net/1992/8111
Palabra clave:
Birth weight
Health
Violence
Landmine
Terrorism
Terrorismo - Aspectos sociales - Colombia
Terrorismo - Aspectos económicos - Colombia
Niños - Condiciones sociales - Colombia
Minas antipersonales - Aspectos sociales - Colombia
Minas antipersonales - Aspectos económicos - Colombia
I12
Rights
openAccess
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Description
Summary:This paper estimates the impact of random terrorist attacks (landmines) in Colombia on the health of babies born between 1998 and 2003. The results suggest that these types of terrorist activities that occur during a woman's first trimester of pregnancy have a negative and significant impact on child health outcomes such as birth weight and preterm deliveries, and behaviors such as use of prenatal care. These findings persist when mother fixed effects are included, suggesting that neither observable nor unobservable characteristics of the mothers are driving the results. The paper contributes to the existing literature by identifying yet another important channel through which violence affects economic well being. Given that studies have found a strong link between Low Birth Weight (LBW) and short and long-term socioeconomic outcomes, the negative consequences of violence identified in this paper may have long-term effects on economic activity.