Abstract

Does exposure to civil war during childhood affect women’s later-life intra-household decision-making power? This paper examines the long-term effects of early-life exposure to the Nigerian Civil War on women’s decision-making power within the household, using data from the 2008 Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey. To identify the effects, we adopt a difference-in-differences approach which exploits variation in exposure to the civil war by year of birth and ethnicity. The results show that early-life exposure to the war decreases the likelihood of women’s decision-making power within the household in adulthood. Likely mechanisms include different fertility and marriage choices as well as poorer education, health, and employment outcomes as a result of exposure to the war, which would place women in a more precarious position in the household relative to their partners.

摘要

童年时期接触内战是否会影响女性晚年的家庭内部决策权？本文使用 2008 年尼日利亚人口与健康调查的数据，研究了早年经历尼日利亚内战对女性家庭决策权的长期影响。为了确定影响，我们采用了差异中的差异方法，该方法利用了出生年份和种族对内战暴露的差异。结果表明，早年接触战争会降低女性成年后在家庭中拥有决策权的可能性。可能的机制包括不同的生育和婚姻选择，以及由于暴露在战争中而导致的较差的教育、健康和就业结果，