A Decade-long Maoist Insurgency and the Loss of Child Health in Nepal
- Khusiman PunDetails
9 July 2024/२५ असार २०८१ (मंगलबार, दिउँसो ३ बजे)
A Decade-long Maoist Insurgency and the Loss of Child Health in Nepal
Khusiman Pun, PhD, Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics, Whitman College, USA
Abstract:
This paper studies the impact of Nepal’s 1996-2006 Maoist insurgency on the nutritional status of children. We employ the difference-in-difference (DID) model. The proxy for conflict intensity is killings per thousand population (KPT). The finding of our study is that a marginal increase in KPT decreases the height-for-age (HAZ) of the children by 0.0844. The loss in child health was statistically not significant in both non-poor and poor households. Therefore, the impact of the insurgency on child health is largely driven by the negative effect of the insurgency on ethnic groups, irrespective of their economic status.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Khusiman Pun is the Visiting Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at Whitman College, USA. His field of specializations are Development Economics and Public Economics. His research area is Children's Health and Education. His recent research study on the impact of the Maoist insurgency and the 2015 earthquake in Nepal on children’s health and education. In his future research projects, Dr. Pun has interest on integrating policy issues on children's health and education.