Civil War and Life Chances

Abstract

Civil war adversely affects life chances (i.e. economic well-being, food production and education) that are key to social and economic development; civil war and these life chances all, potentially, affect the most basic life chance -mortality. Results show that civil war worsens child mortality despite controls for other life chances. In contrast, civil war accounts for much of the impact of other life chances on child mortality. Information comes from 175 countries from 1985 through 1998. Given the broad and persistent impact of civil war, future research concerned with social and economic development and, ultimately, the life chances of the masses should consider civil war as a factor in their theories and analyses.

The Conflict Trap Revisited

“…Collier et al (2003) analyze how the adverse effects of civil conflicts like increased military spending, capital flight, loss of social capital, and physical and mental public health deterioration continue even after the fighting is over. Carlton-Ford and Boop (2010) sum these long-term adverse consequences as the negative impacts of civil conflicts on ''life chances'' by which they mean the well-being of civilian populations and the development of human capabilities and among which they include education.…”

“…civilian populations (Hoeffler and Reynal-Querol 2003;Ghobarah, Huth, and Russett 2003;Carlton-Ford and Boop 2010). In this article, I argue that a significant part of this trap is created by the adverse effects of civil conflicts on education.…”

“…Civil conflicts perpetuate themselves by changing in certain ways the societies experience them. These conflicts pull societies into a “conflict trap” by destroying their economic development (Collier 1999; Collier et al 2003), by crippling their political institutions and rendering them unable to address the underlying grievances (Collier et al 2003; Wood 2008; Kibris 2012), and by damaging the “life chances” of their civilian populations (Hoeffler and Reynal-Querol 2003; Ghobarah, Huth, and Russett 2003; Carlton-Ford and Boop 2010). In this article, I argue that a significant part of this trap is created by the adverse effects of civil conflicts on education.…”

The conflict trap revisited: civil conflict and educational achievement

“…These conflicts pull societies into a "conflict trap" by destroying their economic development (Collier, 1999;Collier et al, 2003), by crippling their political institutions and rendering them unable to address the underlying grievances (Collier et al, 2003;Wood, 2008;Kibris, 2012), and by damaging the "life chances" of their civilian populations (Hoeffler and Reynal-Querol, 2003;Ghobarah et al, 2003;Carlton-Ford and Boop, 2010). In this article, I argue that a significant part of this trap is created by the adverse effects of civil conflicts on education.…”