Education and health services are often perceived to be essential determinants in raising living standards in developing countries. The placement and the delivery of these social services are often taken for granted in empirical work, as if these had been randomly allocated across time and space. Yet, using a political economy approach, it is possible that these services are endogenously determined by some political and economic factors. Using data from 1992, 1996 and 1999 health censuses, our paper assesses the role of these factors in determining the placement, type and quantity of social services offered to the population in Peru. In particular, we investigate the changes in health services following the violent civil conflict of the 1990s. We find that the number (public and private) health centers increased between 1992 and 1996 in regions that experienced civil conflict, with the greater increase in public health centers.