The effect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on child labor and school attendance in the West Bank

In this paper we analyze the impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on child labor and school attendance of Palestinian children in the West Bank between the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada (September 2000) and the end of 2006. In particular, we investigate the effects, on children's status, of number of days Israel closed its border with Palestinian Territories. We find that an increase in the number of closure days increases child labor while it (weakly) reduces school attendance in the West Bank. We provide evidence on different mechanisms that possibly account for these results. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.