IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jodeso/v26y2010i3p263-293.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fragile States

Author

Listed:
  • C.S.C. Sekhar

    (Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi, Delhi, India. [email: sekharcsc@yahoo.com; csekhar@iegindia.org])

Abstract

A state is defined as “failed†or “fragile†when it is unable to perform its core functions and displays vulnerability in the social, political, and economic domains. To identify the determinants of state fragility, an econometric analysis has been carried out to explain vulnerability in the economic, political, and social sectors of a country in a structural simultaneous equations framework. Failed States Index (FSI) data of 149 countries for the year 2007 has been used. The results support the hypothesis that there is a great degree of simultaneity in the vulnerability in these three domains and together they determine a country’s fragility/stability. It is seen that social vulnerability impacts political and economic vulnerability significantly, whereas political vulnerability has a definite effect on social vulnerability but not on economic vulnerability. Economic vulnerability has a limited effect on the vulnerability in the other two spheres – in the sense that a single dimension alone (either income level or income inequality but not both) appears to impact vulnerability in the social and political domains. The insignificant effect of political vulnerability on economic vulnerability is surprising. One plausible explanation is that political vulnerability may lead to economic vulnerability with a lag, while this study is based on data at a single point in time. However, further research is needed on this aspect. The broad policy implication of the study is that, to rebuild capacity in highly fragile or failed states, priority should be accorded to addressing social vulnerability through immediate political measures, followed by long-term initiatives to promote economic development.

Suggested Citation

  • C.S.C. Sekhar, 2010. "Fragile States," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 26(3), pages 263-293, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jodeso:v:26:y:2010:i:3:p:263-293
    DOI: 10.1177/0169796X1002600301
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0169796X1002600301
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0169796X1002600301?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Monika François & Inder Sud, 2006. "Promoting Stability and Development in Fragile and Failed States," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 24(2), pages 141-160, March.
    2. North, Douglass C, 1994. "Economic Performance through Time," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 359-368, June.
    3. Marina Ottaway, 2002. "Rebuilding State Institutions in Collapsed States," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 33(5), pages 1001-1023, November.
    4. Paul Collier & V. L. Elliott & Håvard Hegre & Anke Hoeffler & Marta Reynal-Querol & Nicholas Sambanis, 2003. "Breaking the Conflict Trap : Civil War and Development Policy," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13938, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Boris Branisa & Carolina Cardona, 2015. "Social Institutions and Gender Inequality in Fragile States: Are They Relevant for the Post-MDG Debate?," Southern Voice Occasional Paper 21, Southern Voice.
    2. DiCaprio, Alisa, 2013. "The Demand Side of Social Protection: Lessons from Cambodia’s Labor Rights Experience," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 108-119.
    3. Sumner, Andy, 2012. "Where Do The Poor Live?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 865-877.
    4. Massimo Buscema & Pier Luigi Sacco & Guido Ferilli, 2016. "Multidimensional Similarities at a Global Scale: An Approach to Mapping Open Society Orientations," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 1239-1258, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Patricia Justino, 2006. "On the Links between Violent Conflict and Chronic Poverty: How Much Do We Really Know?," HiCN Working Papers 18, Households in Conflict Network.
    2. Patricia Justino, 2009. "The Impact of Armed Civil Conflict on Household Welfare and Policy Responses," Research Working Papers 12, MICROCON - A Micro Level Analysis of Violent Conflict.
    3. Engelhardt, Sebastian v. & Freytag, Andreas, 2013. "Institutions, culture, and open source," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 90-110.
    4. Diana Ricciulli-Marín, 2020. "The Fiscal Cost of Conflict: Evidence from La Violencia in Colombia," Cuadernos de Historia Económica 53, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    5. Chang Woon Nam & Jan Schumacher, 2014. "Dynamics and Time Frameof Post War Recovery Required for Compensating Civil War Economic Losses," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 15(03), pages 79-87, August.
    6. Michael Watts, 2007. "Petro-Insurgency or Criminal Syndicate? Conflict & Violence in the Niger Delta," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(114), pages 637-660, December.
    7. Schmid, Andreas, 2007. "Incentive Compatibility and Efficiency in the contractual Insurer-Provider Relationship: Economic Theory and practical Implications: The Case of North Carolina," MPRA Paper 23311, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2008.
    8. Clayton L. Thyne, 2006. "Cheap Signals with Costly Consequences," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 50(6), pages 937-961, December.
    9. Alison J. Ayers, 2010. "Sudan's uncivil war: the global--historical constitution of political violence," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(124), pages 153-171, June.
    10. Michael Stuetzer & David B. Audretsch & Martin Obschonka & Samuel D. Gosling & Peter J. Rentfrow & Jeff Potter, 2018. "Entrepreneurship culture, knowledge spillovers and the growth of regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(5), pages 608-618, May.
    11. Farla, Kristine, 2012. "Institutions and credit," MERIT Working Papers 2012-038, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    12. Banterle, Alessandro & Stranieri, Stefanella, 2008. "The consequences of voluntary traceability system for supply chain relationships. An application of transaction cost economics," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 560-569, December.
    13. Luis Alfonso Dau & Aya S. Chacar & Marjorie A. Lyles & Jiatao Li, 2022. "Informal institutions and international business: Toward an integrative research agenda," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 985-1010, August.
    14. Satoru Kumagai, 2015. "The Middle-Income Trap from the Viewpoint of Trade Structures: Are the Geese Trapped or Still Flying?," Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy (JICEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(03), pages 1-23.
    15. Christoph Zürcher, 2022. "Evidence on aid (in)effectiveness in highly fragile states: A synthesis of three systematic reviews of aid to Afghanistan, Mali, and South Sudan, 2008-21," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-160, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Jefferson, Gary H., 1997. "China's economic future: A discussion paper," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 581-595.
    17. Jacques Fontanel, 2000. "L’arme économique et son application dans l’histoire contemporaine," Post-Print hal-02880893, HAL.
    18. Joachim Ahrens & Patrick Jünemann, 2011. "Adaptive Efficiency and Pragmatic Flexibility: Characteristics of Institutional Change in Capitalism, Chinese-style," Chapters, in: Werner Pascha & Cornelia Storz & Markus Taube (ed.), Institutional Variety in East Asia, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Leakey, Roger & Kranjac-Berisavljevic, Gordana & Caron, Patrick & Craufurd, Peter & Martin, Adrienne M. & McDonald, Andy & Abedini, Walter & Afiff, Suraya & Bakurin, Ndey & Bass, Steve & Hilbeck, Ange, 2009. "Impacts of AKST on development and sustainability goals," Book Chapters,, International Water Management Institute.
    20. Roy Thurik & Sander Wennekers & Ingrid Verheul & David Audretsch, 2001. "An eclectic theory of entrepreneurship: policies, institutions and culture," Scales Research Reports H200012, EIM Business and Policy Research.

    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:sae:jodeso:v:26:y:2010:i:3:p:263-293. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.