The Impacts of Armed Conflict on Human Development

Paola Vesco, Ghassan Baliki, Tilman Brück, Stefan Döring, Anneli Eriksson, Hanne Fjelde, Debarati Guha-Sapir, Jonathan Hall, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Maxine R. Leis, Hannes Mueller, Christopher Rauh, Ida Rudolfsen and Ashok Swain

Janeway Institute Working Papers from Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge

Abstract: The detrimental impacts of wars on human development are well documented across research domains, from public health to micro-economics. However, these impacts are studied in compartmentalized silos, which limits a comprehensive understanding of the consequences of conflicts, hampering our ability to effectively sustain human development. This article takes a first step in filling this gap by reviewing the literature on conflict impacts through the lens of an inter-disciplinary theoretical framework. We review the literature on the consequences of conflicts across 9 dimensions of human development: health, schooling, livelihood and income, growth and investments, political institutions, migration and displacement, socio-psychological wellbeing and capital, water access, and food security. The study focuses on both direct and indirect impacts of violence, reviews the existing evidence on how impacts on different dimensions of societal wellbeing and development may intertwine, and suggests plausible mechanisms to explain how these connections materialize. This exercise leads to the identification of critical research gaps and reveals that systemic empirical testing of how the impacts of war spread across sectors is severely lacking. By streamlining the literature on the impacts of war across multiple domains, this review represents a first step to build a common language that can overcome disciplinary silos and achieve a deeper understanding of how war reverberates across society. This multidisciplinary understanding of conflict impacts may eventually help reconcile divergent estimates and enable forward-looking policies that minimize the costs of war.

Keywords: Human Development; Policies; War (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-10-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-pke
Note: cr542
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Working Paper: The Impacts of Armed Conflict on Human Development (2024)
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