Impacts of disability on poverty: Quasi-experimental evidence from landmine amputees in Cambodia

Abstract This paper examines the impacts of disability on poverty in rural Cambodia. I combine a natural experiment and spatial blocking. First, I focus on amputation among adults due to landmines, which is free from measurement errors and the onset of which is an exogenous shock. Second, I conduct an original survey stratified by disability status within villages where people have shared the same local vulnerability to landmine accidents. This research design enables matching analysis within small geographic areas, treating demographic factors, such as household formation and fertility, as endogenous. This quasi-experimental study finds that amputation greatly reduces consumption and income, but not subjective well-being (i.e., adaptation), increasing poverty and augmenting its magnitude. Disability triggers a vicious circle of reduced work, low earnings, and limited accumulation of productive assets and social capital. This work-cum-asset channel leads to adverse intergenerational effects on child schooling and child labor.