Conflict and Well-Being of Civilians : The Case of Russian-Ukrainian Hybrid War

This paper investigates the contemporaneous effect of a conflict on civilians. Applying multidimensional concept of well-being and DiD approach we consider how the Russian-Ukrainian hybrid war affected people from both sides: in Russia, a country, which initiated and supported this hybrid war, and in Ukraine, a country, where the conflict takes place. We employ two large household surveys in 2012-2016 and find that the conflict significantly worsened financial well-being in both countries. The impact of the conflict on Russia was short-lived and mostly manifested itself through worsened expectations about the future financial well-being. The impact of the conflict on Ukraine is much stronger and long-term. The intensity of the effect is inversely related to the distance from the conflict zone. The effect on health is less pronounced in the short run and is not necessarily weakening with distance. However, we find evidence of deterioration in chronic diseases over a longer period