← Search

The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 97 No. 4 2015

External Shocks, Internal Shots: The Geography of Civil Conflicts

Nicolas Berman1; Mathieu Couttenier2

1 Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies · 2 University of Lausanne

Abstract

We use georeferenced information on the location of violent events in sub-Saharan African countries and provide evidence that external income shocks are important determinants of the intensity and geography of civil conflicts. More precisely, we find that (a) the incidence, intensity, and onset of conflicts are generally negatively and significantly correlated with income variations at the local level; (b) this relationship is significantly weaker for the most remote locations; and (c) at the country level, these shocks have an insignificant impact on the overall probability of conflict outbreak but do affect the probability that conflicts start in the most opened regions.

DOI
10.1162/rest_a_00521
Volume
97
Issue
4
Pages
758-776
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref

Cite