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Title: Early-Life Conditions, Parental Investments, and Child Development: Evidence from a Violent Conflict

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2014

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Abstract: A growing body of evidence finds that early-life circumstances are an important determinant of an individuals future outcomes. Here I investigate how shocks in utero and in childhood affect human capital formation, and to what extent their experience at certain developmental stages matters more than others. I focus on violent conflicts that constitute multidimensional shocks to the well-being of many households in developing countries. Using monthly and municipality-level variation in the timing and severity of massacres in Colombia from 1999 to 2007, I show that children exposed to sudden changes in violence in utero and in childhood achieve lower height-for-age (0.09 SD), cognitive (PPVT falls by 0.17 SD and verbal ability, math reasoning, and general knowledge fall by 0.150.28 SD), and socio-emotional outcomes (adequate interaction falls by 0.04 SD). Furthermore, I explore changes in parental investments as potential mechanisms, finding that changes in violence during a childs early-life is associated with lower quantity and quality of parenting. Results do not seem to be driven by selective sorting, migration, fertility, or survival, and are robust to controlling for mother fixed-effects. This is the first study to investigate the effects of early-life violence on child cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes in a developing country and among the first to investigate the role of parenting as a potential channel of transmission.

Url: http://www.columbia.edu/~vd2220/Duque_JobMarketPaper_15Nov2014.pdf

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Authors: Duque, Valetina

Publisher: Columbia University

Data Collections: IPUMS International

Topics: Family and Marriage, Fertility and Mortality, Other

Countries: Colombia