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Civil Conflict, Cash Transfers, and Child Nutrition in Yemen

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<mark>Journal publication date</mark>31/07/2024
<mark>Journal</mark>Economic Development and Cultural Change
Issue number4
Volume72
Number of pages32
Pages (from-to)2069 - 2100
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date24/05/24
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

The most dramatic outcomes of protracted civil conflict include increased malnutrition among children and the resulting consequences for lifelong health and prosperity. Little is known about how to mitigate the nutritional impact of conflict. Understanding the potential of social protection measures is particularly important when the risk of intense armed conflict is high.We use quarterly panel data from Yemen to estimate the impact of civil conflict on child nutrition and the effect of unconditional cash transfers in mitigating the adverse nutritional impact. The results show that a one-standard-deviation increase in armed conflict intensity reduces children’s weight-for-height z-scores by 9.6%, on average. We also find that the studied cash transfer program mitigates the estimated nutritional impact by 42.4%. Our analysis suggests that unconditional cash transfers can be an effective development policy tool to curb rising acute child malnutrition in Yemen.