The Humanitarian Impact of Economic sanctions

Economic sanctions have the reputation of harming the population in the sanctioned countries. In this paper, I investigate under what circumstances such harm occurs and what is its magnitude. I estimate the impact of in utero exposure to sanctions episodes on infant weight, child height, and child mortality. Using a large child level data set from 69 countries, I find that being exposed to sanctions leads to lower infant weight and higher probability of death before age three. I find negative effects only for children exposed to the first two years of sanctions.