Three Essays On Cambodia?s Post-Genocide Development

This dissertation examines how the Cambodian genocide and agricultural practices have shaped the country’s long-run development. It focuses on three outcomes: macroeconomic growth, individual-level human capital, and the gender composition of agricultural labor.

Chapter 1 analyzes the long-term economic effects of the Cambodian genocide using a counterfactual scenario that removes demographic disruptions caused by mass killings. I simulate population structures using fertility and survival rates from 1950 to 2015 and embed them in a production function with heterogeneous labor and intergenerational skill transmission. The results show that although actual GDP per capita initially exceeded the counterfactual due to a higher working-age ratio and more land and capital per worker, this advantage reversed over time. Persistent human capital losses and a delayed recovery in skill composition led to slower productivity growth and reduced long-run economic output.

Chapter 2 uses the sudden, nationwide disruption of the Pol Pot regime (1975 to 1979) as a natural experiment to estimate how being born in an urban area during the genocide affected adult education and wealth. Applying a generalized Difference-in-Differences approach, I use relative district birth size and other indicators to proxy for pre-genocide urbanization. Urban-born cohorts completed 0.02 to 1.6 fewer years of schooling, with the 1977 cohort in Phnom Penh showing the most significant decline in education and wealth. Results are robust across specifications and highlight the lasting human capital impact of forced urban evacuation.

Chapter 3 investigates whether rice cultivation is associated with lower female participation in agriculture. At the farm level, I run OLS regressions of the female labor share on the proportion of land allocated to rice. At the district level, I use both OLS and IV regressions, instrumenting rice yield with elevation based on the suitability of lowland areas for rice production. Results show that farms with more rice land employ fewer women, and districts with higher rice yields have lower female participation. IV estimates confirm a correlation between rice cultivation and reduced female agricultural labor.

Together, these three studies offer insight into how violence and agricultural practices have shaped Cambodia’s post-genocide development.