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Conflict, Climate, and Cells: A Disaggregated Analysis

Mariaflavia Harari1; Eliana La Ferrara2

1 University of Pennsylvania · 2 Bocconi University, IGIER, and LEAP

The Review of Economics and Statistics 2018 open access

We conduct a disaggregated empirical analysis of civil conflict at the subnational level in Africa over 1997 to 2011 using a new gridded data set. We construct an original measure of agriculture-relevant weather shocks exploiting within-year variation in weather and in crop growing season and spatial variation in crop cover. Temporal and spatial spillovers in conflict are addressed through spatial econometric techniques. Negative shocks occurring during the growing season of local crops affect conflict incidence persistently, and local conflict spills over to neighboring cells. We use our estimates to trace the dynamic response to shocks and predict how future warming may affect violence.

DOI
10.1162/rest_a_00730
Volume
100 (4)
Pages
594-608
Language
en
Export
BibTeX
Sources
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