Collateral Damage: The Legacy of the Secret War in Laos

Abstract We investigate the long-term impact of conflict on economic development, focusing on the US ‘Secret War’ in Laos (1964–73). Our study employs multiple empirical strategies and data on bombing campaigns, satellite imagery, and development indicators to demonstrate that regions heavily bombed...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Economic journal (London) 2024-07, Vol.134 (661), p.2101-2140
Main Authors: Riaño, Juan Felipe, Valencia Caicedo, Felipe
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accumulation
Bombing
Campaigns
Capital formation
Economic development
Human capital
Imagery
Transformation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abstract We investigate the long-term impact of conflict on economic development, focusing on the US ‘Secret War’ in Laos (1964–73). Our study employs multiple empirical strategies and data on bombing campaigns, satellite imagery, and development indicators to demonstrate that regions heavily bombed during this period experienced lower economic development almost fifty years after the conflict officially ended. A one-standard-deviation increase in bombing intensity is associated with a 7.1% decrease in GDP per capita. We demonstrate the persistent effects of bombing campaigns on human capital accumulation, structural transformation and migration patterns, stressing the role of unexploded ordnance contamination as the primary mechanism of transmission of these effects.
ISSN:0013-0133
1468-0297
DOI:10.1093/ej/ueae004