Conflict and Health – Evidence from Ukraine

Ein Vortrag von Maksym Obrizan (Kyiv School of Economics) im Rahmen der Seminarreihe des AB Ökonomie am IOS.
Datum: 22. Oktober 2019
Zeit: 13.30 Uhr
Ort: Leibniz-Institut für Ost-und Südosteuropaforschung (IOS), Landshuter Str. 4 (Raum 109)

Violent conflicts, which intensified in recent years around the world, lead to considerable human and economic losses. In 2014, after 23 peaceful years since gaining independence, Ukraine suddenly became involved into a violent conflict of a major scale which already resulted in 13,000 people being killed (including more than 3,000 civilians), up to 30,000 individuals being injured and more than 1.5 million inhabitants of Donetsk and Luhansk regions being displaced. At the same time, many researchers argue that the burden of the conflict on population health may be much higher. Our study estimates the effect of violent conflict on population health in Ukraine using aggregate statistics on newly reported diagnoses using a unique dataset collected directly from 20 out of 25 Ukrainian regions. Specifically, we requested and processed medical statistics from a balanced sample of 474 administrative districts (cities and counties) before the conflict start in 2012-2013 and in the middle of the conflict in 2015-2016. Using difference-in-difference approach we analyze changes in the newly reported cases in Donbas after the conflict start relative to other regions of Ukraine before and during the conflict. After controlling for socio-demographic and economic characteristics of regions, we identify modest but statistically significant increase in the number of newly reported diagnoses in Donbas after the conflict start. The results are consistent with our previous work showing that directly affected regions of Donbas bear the highest cost of the conflict compared to other (even adjacent) regions.