Olga N. Shemyakina and Anke C. Plagnol. “Ethnicity, subjective well-being and armed conflict: Evidence from Bosnia-Herzegovina”. Social Indicators Research. 113(3), pp. 1129-1152 (2013). (journal)(download)



We analyze survey data from Bosnia and Herzegovina collected after the 1992–1995 Bosnian War to answer the following questions: How does individual subjective well-being evolve in the post-conflict period? Does exposure to conflict have an important role in determining one’s post-war experiences? Our identification strategy relies on regional and individual-level variation in exposure to the conflict. Individual war-related trauma has a negative, significant, and lasting impact on subjective well-being. The effect is stronger for those displaced during the war. Municipality-level conflict measures are not significantly associated with subjective well-being once municipality fixed effects are accounted for.