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The Opec Boys and the political economy of smuggling in northern Uganda

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Author Info

  • Els Lecoutere

    () (Ghent University)

  • Kristof Titeca

    () (Ghent University)

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    Abstract

    In this article, we unearth the institution for enforcement of the agreement between the Opec Boys, fuel smugglers and ex-rebels, and a politician, who allows them to conduct illegal smuggling. Rather than the Opec Boys’ threat of rebellion, their promise of political support and refraining from civil disorder matters to inflict cooperation. A repeated play mechanism where the players punish each other for defection but return to cooperation makes up the ‘rules of the game’. Uncovering this endogenously emerged institution for contract enforcement explicitly reveals the importance of political alliances in the second economy in a fragile state environment.

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    File URL: http://www.hicn.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/HiCN-WP-36.pdf
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    Bibliographic Info

    Paper provided by Households in Conflict Network in its series HiCN Working Papers with number 36.

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    Length: 41 pages
    Date of creation: Nov 2007
    Date of revision:
    Handle: RePEc:hic:wpaper:36

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    Web page: http://www.hicn.org

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    1. Douglass C North & John Joseph Wallis & Barry R. Weingast, 2006. "A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History," NBER Working Papers 12795, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Robert H. Bates & Avner Greif & Margaret Levi & Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, 1998. "Analytic Narratives," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 6355.
    3. Kandori, Michihiro, 1992. "Social Norms and Community Enforcement," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 63-80, January.
    4. Paul Collier & Anke Hoeffler, 2004. "Greed and Grievance in Civil War," Development and Comp Systems 0409007, EconWPA.
    5. Acemoglu, Daron & Johnson, Simon & Robinson, James A., 2005. "Institutions as a Fundamental Cause of Long-Run Growth," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 6, pages 385-472 Elsevier.
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    Cited by:
    1. Titeca, Kristof & Vervisch, Thomas, 2008. "The Dynamics of Social Capital and Community Associations in Uganda: Linking Capital and its Consequences," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 2205-2222, November.

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