This presentation will discuss the findings of a major research project examining whether and how early-life exposure to civil war violence affects labour-market outcomes later in life. Examining the armed conflict in Peru, which experienced a protracted and brutal insurgency between 1980 and 1995, Dr. Galdo finds that exposure to civil war violence in the first 36 months of life is most likely to impact how much money that child earns as an adult. Neither fetal nor pre-school exposure to civil war violence significantly affects long-run earnings. Further, the type of civil war violence experienced matters. For example, forced disappearances emerge as the most hurtful type of violence in the long-run. Sexual violations disproportionally affected the wages of women, while torture and forced disappearances disproportionally affected the wages of men. These findings have important implications for the design of post-conflict policy responses.

Jose Galdo is assistant professor at the School of Public Policy and Administration and the Department of Economics at Carleton University. He is also a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, Germany. His research lies at the intersection of labor economics, program evaluation, development, and research methods and design. He has consulted for a range of international and development institutions including the International Labour Organization, United Nations Development Programme, and the Inter-American Development Bank. Dr. Galdo is a Fulbright Scholar and holds a PhD in economics from Syracuse University.