The results of this study provide some insights into the effects of economic sanctions on the civilians of the targeted state. It investigates issues like inflation of consumer goods, infant and child mortality rates, and political freedom.

This study could not provide statistically significant support for H1, which proposes that UN-imposed sanctions are associated with an increase in the inflation of consumer goods prices. This could be due to different political and economic systems applied by the targeted states, or it could be due to differences in the application of sanctions. Some countries in the data were subjected to partial import sanctions, while others were to complete import and export sanctions. This study did not control for the effect of these confounders. However, the results show a non-statistically significant but positive association between the inflation of consumer goods prices and the imposition of sanctions, multilateral, UN sanctions, and the total number of active waves of sanctions.

The results are more mixed for the infant mortality rate. The results provide empirical evidence to support H2.1. Sanctions imposed by the UN are associated with an increase in infant mortality rate. (Peksen 2011) argues that targeted states could make decisions and reallocate resources to mitigate the effects of sanctions on infant mortality rate, this study might provide both support and rejection to that claim. The empirical results show that the infant mortality rate is statistically significant and negatively associated with the duration of sanctions, the number of active waves, and multilateral. This could be due to the mechanism proposed by Peksen. However, it could be the effect of time and global medical improvement. Some of these sanctions have been placed since the year 2000 until today; for these countries, this study has used pre-2000 control units. However, since 2000 much has been done regarding healthcare improvement globally. This could contribute to the associated negative effect along with Peksen’s proposed mechanism. Unfortunately, this study did not have this included. This remains a topic for further investigation. Interestingly, the results show a positive and statistically significant association between infant mortality rate and UN-imposed sanctions, a similar effect is also shown for EU-imposed sanctions.

While UN sanctions have been discussed previously as they provide limited or no maneuverability to the sanctioned state, as these sanctions have to pass through the UN Security Council, it makes sense that such sanctions will be painful. The effect of the EU is interesting and needs further investigation.
In line with other studies, this study finds a positive and statistically significant association between child mortality rate and sanctions imposition. Duration is positively associated with the child mortality rate. The more prolonged sanctions last, the higher the child mortality rate goes. Sanctions imposed by the UN and US are positively associated with an increase in child mortality rate. The results provide empirical evidence to support H2.2.

Finally, the results fail to find evidence supporting H3.1, as political freedom does not have a statistically significant duration estimate. However, it finds support for H3.2 as the total number of active sanctions imposed on a country is negative and statistically significantly associated with political freedom. Furthermore, multilateral sanctions are negatively associated with political Freedom. This goes in line with several previous studies.

Conclusion

This study sheds light on the effects of economic sanctions on the civilians of the targeted states. The investigated variables include inflation of consumer goods prices, infant mortality rate, child mortality rate, and political freedom.

Economic sanctions may not necessarily lead to higher inflation of consumer goods prices. However, it provides empirical evidence of the adverse effects of sanctions on public health, particularly for children. The study also provides evidence of a negative impact on political freedoms. This study suggests that the impacts of economic sanctions are context-specific and may vary depending on the circumstances of the targeted state. While this study has its limitation, it highlights the need for further research and investigation to understand the effects of economic sanctions on civilians fully. Ultimately, this study has important implications for policymakers to consider the impact of sanctions on the most vulnerable members of society.