Journal of Political Economy Vol. 123 No. 5 2015

Strategic Mass Killings

Joan Esteban^1,2,3; Massimo Morelli^4,5,6; Dominic Rohner^7,8

¹ Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica · ² National Research Council · ³ Barcelona School of Economics · ⁴ Institute for Economic Research · ⁵ Bocconi University · ⁶ Columbia University · ⁷ University of Zurich · ⁸ University of Lausanne

Abstract

We provide a model of conflict and mass killing decisions to identify the key variables and situations that make mass killings more likely to occur. We predict that mass killings are most likely in countries with large amounts of natural resource rents, polarization, institutional constraints regarding rent sharing, and low productivity of labor. The role of resources such as oil, gas, and diamonds and other key determinants of mass killings is confirmed by our empirical results based on country-level as well as ethnic group–level analysis.

DOI

10.1086/682584

Volume

123

Issue

5

Pages

1087-1132

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite

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