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Income and armed civil conflict: An instrumental variables approach

Author

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  • Christa N. Brunnschweiler

    (University of East Anglia)

  • Paivi Lujala

    (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

Abstract

The large empirical conflict literature has established a strong negative link between economic variables and the onset of an armed civil conflict. However, it has been hard to demonstrate a clear causality becasue of potential endogeneity issues. Using three new exogenous instruments for income per capita in IV estimations, we show that the negative effect of income per capita on the probability of conflict is consistently strong and larger than in conventional pooled OLS estimations.

Suggested Citation

  • Christa N. Brunnschweiler & Paivi Lujala, 2015. "Income and armed civil conflict: An instrumental variables approach," University of East Anglia School of Economics Working Paper Series 2015-06, School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    • Handle: RePEc:uea:ueaeco:2015_06
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    civil conflict; income; panel data; IV estimation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • C26 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation

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