The persistent health effects of defoliating Vietnam

Abstract

This paper investigates the long-run unintended environmental effects of conflicts on health and socioeconomic outcomes by focusing on dioxin exposure from herbicidal warfare deployed in the Second Indochina War. To address omitted variable bias caused by the non-randomness of dioxin exposure, I leverage the difference in dioxin contamination, unknown during the war, between different herbicides. The estimation results show a higher prevalence of disability in more exposed areas, with one standard deviation increase in the exposure index associated with about 5%-20% of the disability prevalence in the unexposed communes. My methods allow me to uncover two main channels contributing to impaired health: direct dioxin exposure during wartime and cascading intergenerational effects from the initial exposure. I also find that dioxin exposure affects educational, labor, and economic outcomes.