Ricerc@Sapienza

This article investigates whether conflict induces distortions in the functioning and accessibility of markets for production inputs and in their allocation among firms. We study firm operations and outcomes in the context of Palestine during the Second Intifada. We analyse input usage over time across districts experiencing differential changes in conflict intensity. Conflict induces firms to substitute domestically produced materials for imported ones.

We study the effect of parental job loss on child school dropout in developing countries. We focus on Palestinian households living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and having the household head employed in Israel during the Second Intifada (2000–2006). We exploit quarterly variation in conflict intensity across districts in the OPT to instrument for Palestinian workers’ job loss in Israel. Our 2SLS results show that parental job loss increases child school dropout probability by 9 percentage points. The effect varies with child and household characteristics.