Prenatal Exposure to Shocks and Early-life Health: Impact of Terrorism and Flood on Birth Outcomes in Pakistan

Abstract

Simultaneous exposure to natural calamities and conflict shocks is a phenomenon that has been largely understudied. The interplay between natural disasters and conflict shocks can have adverse effects extending beyond the current family members to children in utero. The current paper tries to fill this gap by investigating the impact of floods on pregnancy and birth outcomes across conflict-affected and unaffected districts in Pakistan. Using mother fixed effects strategy, the results suggest that in-utero exposure to violence during flood increases the probability of small birth size by 4.7 percentage points. Moreover, simultaneous exposure to flood and violence increases the probability of miscarriages and stillbirths by 6 and 1.9 percentage points, respectively. Significant heterogeneities are found across income groups and education levels.
KEYWORDS:

• Natural calamity
• violence
• birth outcomes
• child health
• Pakistan

Description