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AbstractThis paper evaluates the extent to which armed conflicts alter women's intra‐household decision making in 51 countries over the past three decades (1990–2018). Exploiting the variations both within and across districts in the timing of battles, we uncover adverse consequences of armed conflict on women's engagement in household decisions on both financial and non‐financial aspects. Specifically, a one standard deviation increase in the number of battles (equivalent to an increase of 5.1 battles) reduces the composite financial and non‐financial decision indices of women by 2.32% and 1.34% relative to the sample averages. Breaking down the decision‐making indices by looking at the underlying items, we further find that the declines in women's intra‐household decision making come from reductions in all aspects of financial and non‐financial domains.

This article evaluates the extent to which armed conflicts influence early childhood health for 56 developing countries over nearly 30 years. Exploiting both spatial and temporal variations in conflict exposure within a difference-in-differences framework, the article uncovers detrimental ramifications of armed conflicts on the health outcomes of children under five years old. Particularly, children exposed to armed conflicts have lower height-for-age, weight-for-height, and weight-for-age z-scores by 0.08, 0.05, and 0.10 standard deviations, respectively. Taking the average corresponding anthropometric z-scores of unexposed children as the benchmarks, exposure to armed conflicts makes children 6.6% shorter for their age, 11% thinner for their height, and 9% thinner for their age. Exposure to armed conflicts further makes children 2.2, 0.8, and 2.6 percentage points more likely to be stunted, wasted, and underweight, respectively (i.e. 7.3%, 7.9%, and 10.2% increases compared to the benchmark averages of those unexposed to armed conflicts). In addition, the heterogeneity analyses suggest that children born to low-education mothers, children from relatively poor households, and children living in rural areas tend to bear the larger health setbacks. Given the long-lasting impacts of poor health in early childhood on adult outcomes, delivering nutrition interventions to children in conflict zones is of utmost importance, and extra attention should be given to children of disadvantaged backgrounds.

AbstractThis paper explores the role of teacher race/ethnicity in the teacher‐perceived relationships with kindergarten and early elementary school students. Employing a model with both student and teacher fixed effects, we discover a positive link between the racial/ethnic match and the teacher‐reported relationships with students. Specifically, minority students tend to have closer relationships with their teachers when they are taught by a minority teacher. Our analyses also provide suggestive evidence that the effects on the teacher–student relationships could not be driven by differential racial discrimination between white and minority teachers. Particularly, white and minority teachers are not differentially biased in judging their relationships with minority students, implying that the source of the racial/ethnic interaction effects is likely to come from the role modeling of behaviors. Given the importance of the relationships between young children and nonparental adults in their early stages of life, these findings have crucial policy implications.

This article evaluates the extent to which armed conflicts influence early childhood health for 56 developing countries over nearly 30 years. Exploiting both spatial and temporal variations in conflict exposure within a difference-in-differences framework, the article uncovers detrimental ramifications of armed conflicts on the health outcomes of children under five years old. Particularly, children exposed to armed conflicts have lower height-for-age, weight-for-height, and weight-for-age z-scores by 0.08, 0.05, and 0.10 standard deviations, respectively. Taking the average corresponding anthropometric z-scores of unexposed children as the benchmarks, exposure to armed conflicts makes children 6.6% shorter for their age, 11% thinner for their height, and 9% thinner for their age. Exposure to armed conflicts further makes children 2.2, 0.8, and 2.6 percentage points more likely to be stunted, wasted, and underweight, respectively (i.e. 7.3%, 7.9%, and 10.2% increases compared to the benchmark averages of those unexposed to armed conflicts). In addition, the heterogeneity analyses suggest that children born to low-education mothers, children from relatively poor households, and children living in rural areas tend to bear the larger health setbacks. Given the long-lasting impacts of poor health in early childhood on adult outcomes, delivering nutrition interventions to children in conflict zones is of utmost importance, and extra attention should be given to children of disadvantaged backgrounds. JEL codes: I10, I15, J13, O15

AbstractThis paper investigates the extent to which in utero exposure to temperature shocks affects birth weight outcomes in Vietnam. Exploiting the variations across districts and conception timing within districts, we show that a one standard deviation increase in temperature relative to the local norm (approximately 0.52°C) during the first trimester of pregnancy reduces the child's weight at birth by 67 g or 2.2 percent. Our heterogeneity analysis suggests that infants living in rural areas, born to poor and low‐educated mothers are especially vulnerable to temperature shocks.

Abstract
This paper evaluates the impacts of education on women's relational empowerment, within a context of 70 developing countries across the world. Exploiting the variation in educational attainment between biological sisters, we find that education is positively associated with women's intra-household decision making authority in both financial and non-financial domains. Moreover, education reduces relational friction, especially women's exposure to psychological abuse. Our mechanism analyses provide suggestive evidence that these improvements could be attributed to increased access to information, assortative matching, and better labor market outcome.