The Long-Term Effects of the Rwandan Genocide on Child Work

We estimate the effect of the Rwandan genocide on children born after the genocide using commune variation in genocide intensity and child work and schooling in the 2010 Demographic and Health Survey. We instrument for killings with the commune’s distance to the Ugandan border. Doubling killings per capita increases the probability of a child working by 3.35 percentage points and decreases the probability of a child attending school by 3.68 percentage points. Our results suggest a long-term impact of the genocide likely to affect Rwanda’s development into the future.