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The Industrial Organization of Rebellion: The Logic of Forced Labor and Child Soldiering

Author

Listed:
  • Bernd Beber

    (New York University)

  • Christopher Blattman

    (Yale University)

Abstract

We investigate one of the world’s most pernicious forms of exploitation: child soldiering. Most theories can be captured by a principal-agent model that incorporates punishments, indoctrination, and age-varying productivity. For rebel leaders, we show it is almost always optimal to coerce rather than reward children, and that leaders will tend to forcibly recruit children when punishment and supervision are cheap, when children’s outside options are poor, and when rebel leaders are resource-constrained. To see which mechanisms dominate in practice, we interview and survey former members of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army, who provide a cruel natural experiment that reveals how children and adults respond to coercive incentives. The evidence suggests that children are more easily indoctrinated and disoriented than adults, but are less effective guerrillas; hence the optimal targets of coercion are young adolescents. We confirm predications of the model on a new “cross-rebel” dataset and suggest policy solutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernd Beber & Christopher Blattman, 2010. "The Industrial Organization of Rebellion: The Logic of Forced Labor and Child Soldiering," HiCN Working Papers 72, Households in Conflict Network.
  • Handle: RePEc:hic:wpaper:72
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Roos Haer & Tobias Böhmelt, 2016. "The impact of child soldiers on rebel groups’ fighting capacities," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 33(2), pages 153-173, April.
    2. Willert, Bianca, 2021. "Modern Slavery – An Empirical Analysis," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 167, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics, revised 2021.
    3. Iyer, Lakshmi & Santos, Indhira, 2012. "Creating jobs in South Asia's conflict zones," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6104, The World Bank.
    4. Jean-Paul Azam & Kartika Bhatia, 2017. "Provoking insurgency in a federal state: theory and application to India," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 183-210, March.
    5. Willert, Bianca, 2018. "Masters and slaves: A matching approach with heterogeneous workers," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 159, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.
    6. Kristian Skrede Gleditsch & Simon Hug & Livia Isabella Schubiger & Julian Wucherpfennig, 2011. "International Conventions and Non-State Actors: Selection, Signaling, and Reputation Effects," HiCN Working Papers 108, Households in Conflict Network.
    7. Christopher Blattman & Edward Miguel, 2010. "Civil War," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 3-57, March.
    8. Ahmed Mahmud & Juan Vargas, 2011. "Combatant recruitment and the outcome of war," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 51-74, March.
    9. Jeannie Annan & Christopher Blattman & Dyan Mazurana & Khristopher Carlson, 2009. "Women and Girls at War: Wives , Mothers, and Fighters in the Lord s Resistance Army," HiCN Working Papers 63, Households in Conflict Network.
    10. Lilli Banholzer & Roos Haer, 2014. "Attaching and detaching: the successful reintegration of child soldiers," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 111-127, June.

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