Hard to forget:The long-lasting impact of war on mental health

Massimiliano Bratti, Mariapia Mendola and Alfonso Miranda

No 206, HiCN Working Papers from Households in Conflict Network

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of war trauma experienced during the 1992-1995 Bosnia and Herzegovina conflict on individual mental health. By using a medically-validated depression scale and an instrumental-variable approach we show that, six years after the conflict, traumatised individuals are significantly more likely to be at risk of depression. Results are robust to a number of sensitivity checks accounting for individual geographical mobility and different treatment intensities, and suggest that the negative effects of war trauma are not mainly mediated by physical health problems. Moreover, war trauma has sizeable negative effects on individual labour market outcomes.

Keywords: war trauma; mental health; depression; Bosnia and Herzegovina (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2016-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Hard to Forget: the Long-Lasting Impact of War on Mental Health (2015)
Working Paper: Hard to Forget: The Long-Lasting Impact of War on Mental Health (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hic:wpaper:206

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