Bombs and Babies: Exposure to Terrorism and Fertility Choices in Nigeria

Rotondi, Valentina and Rocca, Michele (2021) Bombs and Babies: Exposure to Terrorism and Fertility Choices in Nigeria. Journal of African Economies.

Text ejab030.pdf Download (456kB)

Abstract

The aim of terrorism all over the world is to have fear rule over people’s lives. The consequences of terrorist attacks, however, are substantially different across contexts. In this paper we study the association between exposure to Boko Haram’s attacks and households’ fertility choices in Nigeria. We hypothesise that households exposed to terrorism increase their number of children as a way to insure against future unexpected shocks. We test this hypothesis using geolocalised panel data linked to information on terrorist attacks that occurred in the region. Consistent with our hypothesis, terrorism is found to increase fertility (proxied by the number of surviving children per household): a one standard deviation increase in the number of fatalities increases the probability that a household hit by terrorism has a newborn by 1%⁠. This association is robust to the use of difference-in-differences and instrumental variables models—and therefore can be given a causal interpretation.

Item Type:	Scientific journal article, Newspaper article or Magazine article
Additional Information:	ejab030
Subjects:	Social studies > Economics Social studies > Sociology Social studies > Development studies Social studies > Others in social studies
Department/unit:	Dipartimento economia aziendale, sanità e sociale > Centro competenze pratiche e politiche sanitarie
Depositing User:	Valentina Rotondi
Date Deposited:	18 Jan 2022 11:39
Last Modified:	17 Oct 2023 10:00
URI:	http://repository.supsi.ch/id/eprint/13191

Actions (login required)

View Item