Effects of forced displacement on health

This paper analyzes health consequences of forced civilian displacement that occurred during the war in Croatia 1991-1995 which accompanied the demise of Yugoslavia. Using the Croatian Adult Health Survey 2003 we test whether displacement is relevant in explaining various dimensions of measured and self-assessed health. We adopt an instrumental variable approach where civilian casualties per county are used as an instrument for displacement. We find robust significant adverse effects on self-assessed health, on probability of suffering from systolic and diastolic hypertension, and on mental health and role emotional SF-36 dimensions. We also address possible channels of adverse effect, and find that displacement did not induce a change in healthy behaviors, and that the negative effect of displacement is channeled through adverse economic conditions that the displaced individuals face.