Abstract
How does violent conflict affect the spread of Covid-19? In this paper we analyze how violent conflict influences the adoption of preventative measures and infection rate in a very poor, conflict-affected country, Burkina Faso. We use a unique panel of 1,919 households surveyed during the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and merge these data with indicators of violence at the municipality and regional level. Infection data are leveraged from test centers located across 65 municipalities in the country. We find a lower adoption rate of preventive measures, and a higher infection rate in areas affected by violence. We also find that poverty appears to play a role for understanding individuals’ adoption rate of preventive measures. Closure of health centers in violence-prone areas is a potential mechanism that seems to drive our results. We argue that political interventions towards peace and stability also help to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.
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