IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/intorg/v73y2019i01p65-101_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Concession Stands: How Mining Investments Incite Protest in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Christensen, Darin

Abstract

Foreign investment in Africa's mineral resources has increased dramatically. This paper addresses three questions raised by this trend: do commercial mining investments increase the likelihood of social or armed conflict? If so, when are these disputes most prevalent? And, finally, what mechanisms help explain these conflicts? I show, first, that mining has contrasting effects on social and armed conflict: while the probability of protests or riots increases (roughly doubling) after mining starts, there is no increase in rebel activity. Second, I show that the probability of social conflict rises with plausibly exogenous increases in world commodity prices. Finally, I compile additional geo-spatial and survey data to explore potential mechanisms, including reporting bias, environmental harm, in-migration, inequality, and governance. Finding little evidence consistent with these accounts, I develop an explanation related to incomplete information—a common cause of conflict in industrial and international relations. This mechanism rationalizes why mining induces protest, why these conflicts are exacerbated by rising prices, and why transparency dampens the relationship between prices and protest.

Suggested Citation

  • Christensen, Darin, 2019. "Concession Stands: How Mining Investments Incite Protest in Africa," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 73(1), pages 65-101, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:intorg:v:73:y:2019:i:01:p:65-101_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0020818318000413/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nicolas Berman & Mathieu Couttenier & Victoire Girard, 2023. "Mineral Resources and the Salience of Ethnic Identities," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(653), pages 1705-1737.
    2. Bazillier, Remi & Girard, Victoire, 2020. "The gold digger and the machine. Evidence on the distributive effect of the artisanal and industrial gold rushes in Burkina Faso," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    3. Girard, Victoire & Kudebayeva, Alma & Toews, Gerhard, 2020. "Inflated Expectations and Commodity Prices: Evidence from Kazakhstan," GLO Discussion Paper Series 469, Global Labor Organization (GLO), revised 2020.
    4. Kate Odziemkowska & Sinziana Dorobantu, 2021. "Contracting Beyond the Market," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(3), pages 776-803, May.
    5. Muhammad Shafiullah & Usman Khalid & Luke Emeka Okafor, 2023. "Do birds of a feather flock together? Analyzing environmental performance and tourist behavior using a gravity approach," Tourism Economics, , vol. 29(5), pages 1139-1163, August.
    6. Kate Odziemkowska & Witold J. Henisz, 2021. "Webs of Influence: Secondary Stakeholder Actions and Cross-National Corporate Social Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(1), pages 233-255, January.
    7. Wegenast, Tim & Beck, Jule, 2020. "Mining, rural livelihoods and food security: A disaggregated analysis of sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    8. Haslam, Paul Alexander, 2021. "The micro-politics of corporate responsibility: How companies shape protest in communities affected by mining," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    9. Xiaoliang Wang & Danlin Yu & Chunhua Yuan, 2021. "Complementary Development between China and Sub-Sahara Africa: Examining China’s Mining Investment Strategies in Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-19, October.
    10. McCauley, John F. & Pearson, Margaret M. & Wang, Xiaonan, 2022. "Does Chinese FDI in Africa inspire support for a china model of development?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    11. Bezzola, Selina & Günther, Isabel & Brugger, Fritz & Lefoll, Erwin, 2022. "CSR and local conflicts in African mining communities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    12. van der Merwe, Antoinette & Cabernard, Livia & Günther, Isabel, 2023. "Urban mining: The relevance of information, transaction costs and externalities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    13. Reeder, Bryce W. & Arce, Moises & Siefkas, Adrian, 2022. "Environmental justice organizations and the diffusion of conflicts over mining in Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    14. Vrolijk, Kasper, 2023. "How does globalisation affect social cohesion?," IDOS Discussion Papers 5/2023, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    15. Victoire Girard & Nicolas Berman & Mathieu Couttenier, 2020. "Natural resources and the salience of ethnic identities," NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series wp2007, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA.
    16. Bose, Purabi, 2023. "Equitable land-use policy? Indigenous peoples’ resistance to mining-induced deforestation," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    17. Sini, Snow & Abdul-Rahim, A.S. & Sulaiman, Chindo, 2021. "Does natural resource influence conflict in Africa? Evidence from panel nonlinear relationship," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:intorg:v:73:y:2019:i:01:p:65-101_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/ino .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.