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The long-run impact of bombing Vietnam

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  • Miguel, Edward
  • Roland, Gérard
Abstract
We investigate the impact of U.S. bombing on later economic development in Vietnam. The Vietnam War featured the most intense bombing campaign in military history and had massive humanitarian costs. We use a unique U.S. military dataset containing bombing intensity at the district level (NÂ =Â 584) to assess whether the war damage led to persistent local poverty traps. We compare the heavily bombed districts to other districts controlling for district demographic and geographic characteristics, and use an instrumental variable approach exploiting distance to the 17th parallel demilitarized zone. U.S. bombing does not have negative impacts on local poverty rates, consumption levels, infrastructure, literacy or population density through 2002. This finding indicates that even the most intense bombing in human history did not generate local poverty traps in Vietnam.

Suggested Citation

  • Miguel, Edward & Roland, Gérard, 2011. "The long-run impact of bombing Vietnam," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 1-15, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:96:y:2011:i:1:p:1-15
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Vietnam Conflict War Growth Convergence Poverty trap Infrastructure investment Education;

    JEL classification:

    • E2 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment
    • O5 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies
    • P5 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems
    • H7 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations

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