Armed conflicts and women's authority in intra‐household decision making
| Published date | 01 July 2023 |
| Author | Kien Le,My Nguyen |
| Date | 01 July 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/sjpe.12342 |
© 2022 Scottish Economic Society.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/sjpe 249
Scott J Polit Econ. 2023;70:249–267.
DOI: 10.1111/sjpe.12342
Received: 23 May 2021 Accepted: 16 December 2022
1The Faculty of Economics and Public
Management, Ho Chi Minh City Open
University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2School of Economics, Finance, and
Accounting International University, Vietnam
National University, Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam
Correspondence
My Nguyen, School of Economics, Finance,
and Accounting, International University,
Vietnam National University, Quarter 6, Linh
Trung Ward, Thu Duc, Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam.
Email: ntmy@hcmiu.edu.vn
Abstract
This paper evaluates the extent to which armed conflicts
alter women's intra-household decision making in 51 coun-
tries over the past three decades (1990–2018). Exploiting
the variations both within and across districts in the timing
of battles, we uncover adverse consequences of armed
conflict on women's engagement in household decisions on
both financial and non-financial aspects. Specifically, a one
standard deviation increase in the number of battles (equiv-
alent to an increase of 5.1 battles) reduces the composite
financial and non-financial decision indices of women by
2.32% and 1.34% relative to the sample averages. Breaking
down the decision-making indices by looking at the under-
lying items, we further find that the declines in women's
intra-household decision making come from reductions in
all aspects of financial and non-financial domains.
KEYWORDS
armed conflicts, developing countries, intra-household decision
making
JEL CLASSIFICATION
J12, J16, O12
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Armed conflicts and women's authority in
intra-household decision making
Kien Le1 | My Nguyen2
1 | INTRODUCTION
The world has seen an upward trend in the number of armed conflicts (Dupuy & Rustad, 2018). From 1960 to
2014, the monetary cost of armed conflict worldwide is estimated to accumulate up to 33% of the 2014 global
GDP (Alamir et al., 2018). Conflict-affected countries further face barriers to their long-term economic development
such as having capital accumulation depressed and falling into poverty traps (Azariadis & Drazen, 1990; Guidolin
& La Ferrara, 2007; Sachs, 2008). Besides the aggregate consequences and immediate damages, civilians exposed
LE and nGUYEn
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to conflicts face the risk of shortening educational accumulation, worsening health conditions, and lowering labor
market outcomes (Akbulut-Yuksel, 2014; Bruck et al., 2019; Bundervoet et al., 2009).
Recently, a growing body of literature on the cost of conflict has examined how exposure to conflicts can
condition women's position in relation to partner. For example, studies from countries in Africa and South Amer-
ica have shown that women exposed to conflicts tend to face intimate partner violence caused by their partners,
including the works of Waldmann (2007), Gupta et al. (2012), Saile et al. (2013), Vinck and Pham (2013). However,
much of the focus has been placed on the aspect of intimate partner violence, and little attention has been given
to intra-household decision making which is another important aspect of women's position in relation to partner
(Banerjee et al., 2015; Huis et al., 2017, 2019; Rahman, 1999). By leaving out the latter aspect, we may underestimate
the relationship between conflict and women's position in relation to partner.
In this paper, we evaluate the impacts of exposure to armed conflicts on intra-household decision making of
women for 51 countries across five continents in the past three decades (1990–2018). This is an important aspect of
women's position in relation to partner because women continue to lag behind men in having influence over impor-
tant household decisions, especially in developing countries (Jayachandran, 2015). Our contribution to the literature
on the relationship between conflicts and development is threefold. First, we investigate the less observable impacts
of conflicts while much focus has been given to the immediate consequences on individuals with urgent humanitarian
needs (Bruck et al., 2017). Second, we complement prior works on the relationship between conflicts and women's
position in relation to partner by examining the aspect of intra-household decision making. Third, the wide coverage
across time and space (51 countries across the globe for almost 30 years) strengthens the external validity of our
estimates, making it more likely for our conclusion to be generalized to other settings. In other words, the implications
of our study could be meaningful to policymakers from many governments.
In the analysis, we employ the Uppsala Conflict Data Program Geo-referenced Event Dataset (UCDP-GED) for a
comprehensive list of armed conflicts worldwide and the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for rich information
on women. To identify the impacts of interest, we exploit the variations within and across districts in the timing of
battles and reach the following findings. First, we uncover negative impacts of exposure to armed conflicts on both
financial and non-financial dimensions of intra-household decision-making authority. Quantitatively, a one standard
deviation increase in the number of battles (equivalent to an increase of 5.1 battles) reduces the composite financial
and non-financial decision indices of women by 2.32% and 1.34% relative to the sample averages, respectively. Next,
we closely examine factors constituting each type of indices. In particular, we find that a one standard deviation
increase in the number of battles reduces the probability of women making decisions on large purchases, spending of
self-earnings, spending of partner's earnings, health care, and visiting relatives by 3.60%, 1.61%, 1.54%, 2.07%, and
2.14% relative to the sample averages, respectively. Our results also pass multiple robustness checks and placebo
test; therefore, our estimates are likely to capture the effects of armed conflicts on women's intra-household decision
making.
The paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 reviews related literature. Section 3 describes the data. Section 4
presents the empirical methodology. Section 5 provides the results. Section 6 concludes the paper.
2 | LITERATURE REVIEW
Generally, the study is related to the literature on the indirect cost of armed conflicts. Besides the direct costs of
destruction and casualties, armed conflicts can indirectly impose far-reaching but less discernible costs. For exam-
ple, both low per capita incomes and slow economic growth are strongly associated with civil wars (Blattman &
Miguel, 2010). Armed conflicts may worsen the quality of learning and reduce the level of educational attainment
(Bruck et al., 2019; Le & Nguyen, 2020a). Besides, the impacts of armed conflicts on individuals' health are also well
documented. In particular, individuals who experience armed conflicts are more likely to report lower health satisfac-
tion (Akbulut-Yuksel, 2014). Furthermore, exposure to armed conflicts during pregnancy may cause women to deliver
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