The subject of civil war has received significant attention in recent years, due to numerous episodes of intrastate armed conflict around the world. However, more work remains to be done in terms of quantifying the effects of civil wars on individuals’ welfare, as well as in un- covering the precise mechanisms through which the relationship operates. This study uses a unique data set that contains information on war casualties of the Bosnian War 1992–1995 at the municipality level, and exploits the variation in war intensity and birth cohorts of children, to identify the effects of the civil war on the schooling attainment of children. I find that individuals in the cohorts affected by war are less likely to complete secondary schooling, if they resided in municipalities that experienced higher levels of war intensity. In addition, I
find no significant effects of war on the completion of primary schooling. By using ancillary evidence, I argue that these results are consistent with the hypothesis that the Bosnian War influences schooling attainment through youth soldiering, and not other direct mechanisms such as undermined school infrastructure and the exodus of teachers. Furthermore, the organization of war schools was particularly successful, which may have muted the effects on primary schooling.