Economic Effects of the War in Donbas: Nightlights and the Ukrainian fight for freedom
Paper available to internal Duke affiliates only upon request.
Professor Charles Becker, Faculty Advisor
Professor Grace Kim, Faculty Advisor
JEL Codes: F51; H56; O52; N44
The Impact of Conflict on Economic Activity: Night Lights and the Bosnian Civil War
by Stephanie Dodd
Abstract
The tendency of violent conflict to suppress economic activity is well documented in the civil war economic literature. However, differential consequences resulting from distinct characteristics of conflicts have not been rigorously studied. Utilizing new conflict data on the 1992-1995 Bosnian civil war from Becker, Devine, Dogo, and Margolin (2018) and DSMP-OLS night light data as a proxy for economic activity, this paper investigates the disparate economic impacts that different types of conflict have on Bosnia’s municipalities.
This investigation first uses data from other Yugoslavian countries to impute pre-war night light values for conflict-affected Bosnian municipalities. Next, a spatial autocorrelation model with fixed effects is used to determine if and how the occurrence of different types of violence vary in their implications for economic activity. This analysis finds that the five types of warfare identified in the context of the Bosnian Civil war have different impacts on night lights and economic activity.
Professor Charles Becker,Faculty Advisor
Professor Grace Kim, Faculty Advisor
JEL Codes: F52, H56, O52
Occupation Segregation and Gender Earnings Differentials in Slovenia
by Arup Banerjee
Abstract
In communist Europe, households needed at least two breadwinners to maintain a
stable household income. Due to the relatively equal wage rate between men and women,
there was a small, if any, wage gap between the two genders. Women and men chose
different industries to work in due to their physical and mental capabilities, which most
times would segregate the workforce based on genderTthus, occupational segregation.
After the fall of communism, these economies transitioned to a market based one. In this
transition, wages become less standard and the wage gap between men and women
became apparent. In some transition economies, occupational segregation has been
shown to account for some of this gap. This study conducts an analysis of Slovenia’s
gender wage gap. To date, there have been few studies on the late transition economies
and none with a focus on Slovenia. Using the Oaxaca-Blinder regression analysis of wage
differentials, it studies Slovenia’s economy using a sample from the Statistical Register,
which contains 53,494 persons from 2001. The study shows that in Slovenia while there
is occupational segregation amongst most industries, this phenomenon does not
significantly account for any proportion of the overall gender wage gap.
Professor Peter Arcidiacono, Faculty Advisor
JEL Codes: J16, O52,
