The Impact of Civil Conflicts on Medical Personnel
By analyzing two novel data sets from Turkey, the project aims to provide empirical evidence for yet another negative consequence of civil conflicts. The project's goal is to show that the long running civil conflict in Turkey has been driving away doctors and other highly trained medical personnel from conflict areas, and that availability of medical personnel is positively associated with public health. By doing so, we aim to illuminate an important, yet never analyzed before mechanism through which civil conflicts exert their long-term negative influences on the most important “life chance” of societies, namely, the chance to lead a healthy life. We will then proceed to assess the effectiveness of certain policy measures that Turkish governments have tried out over time to intervene in the medical labor market to offset the disparity between the conflict zone and other parts of the country in terms of the availability of medical personnel.
