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The (Hidden) Costs of Political Instability: Evidence from Kenya's 2007 Election Crisis

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  • Dupas, Pascaline
  • Robinson, Jon
Abstract
This paper studies the microeconomic impacts of the political crisis and civil conflict that immediately followed the December 2007 Presidential Election in Kenya. Income, expenditures, and consumption dramatically declined for a broad segment of the rural population for the duration of the conflict. To make up for the income shortfall, women who supply transactional sex engaged in higher risk sex both during and after the crisis. While this particular crisis was likely too short for these behavioral responses to seriously increase the risk of HIV or other STIs for these women, such responses could have long-term repercussions for health in countries with longer or more frequent crises. Overall, our results suggest that social unrest can be an important channel through which political instability can affect long-term outcomes such as health.

Suggested Citation

  • Dupas, Pascaline & Robinson, Jon, 2012. "The (Hidden) Costs of Political Instability: Evidence from Kenya's 2007 Election Crisis," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt3pg793qs, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:ucscec:qt3pg793qs
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Medicine and Health Sciences; Social and Behavioral Sciences; civil conflict; political instability; sexual health; transactional sex; HIV/AIDS; public health; fragile states;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O20 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - General
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions

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