IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2010-090.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Economic Legacy of Civil War: Firm Level Evidence from Sierra Leone

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Collier
  • Marguerite Duponchel

Abstract

This paper positions itself among the very rare microeconomic analyses on the consequences of civil war. Up to now, most analyses on this topic are based upon household surveys. The originality of the present study is that it investigates for the first time the likely predominant route by which civil conflict affects the economy, namely through firms. The context of the study is Sierra Leone, a country that was ravaged by a violent conflict from 1991 to 2002.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Collier & Marguerite Duponchel, 2010. "The Economic Legacy of Civil War: Firm Level Evidence from Sierra Leone," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2010-090, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2010-090
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp2010-90.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Machin, Stephen & Manning, Alan, 1999. "The causes and consequences of longterm unemployment in Europe," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 47, pages 3085-3139, Elsevier.
    2. Fallon, P R & Layard, P R G, 1975. "Capital-Skill Complementarity, Income Distribution, and Output Accounting," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(2), pages 279-301, April.
    3. Valerie Cerra & Sweta Chaman Saxena, 2008. "Growth Dynamics: The Myth of Economic Recovery," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(1), pages 439-457, March.
    4. John Duffy & Chris Papageorgiou & Fidel Perez-Sebastian, 2004. "Capital-Skill Complementarity? Evidence from a Panel of Countries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 327-344, February.
    5. Dynarski, Mark & Sheffrin, Steven M, 1990. "The Behavior of Unemployment Durations over the Cycle," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 350-356, May.
    6. Robert J. Barro, 1991. "Economic Growth in a Cross Section of Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 407-443.
    7. Soderbom, Mans & Teal, Francis & Harding, Alan, 2006. "The Determinants of Survival among African Manufacturing Firms," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(3), pages 533-555, April.
    8. Soderbom, Mans & Teal, Francis, 2004. "Size and efficiency in African manufacturing firms: evidence from firm-level panel data," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 369-394, February.
    9. Miguel, Edward & Roland, Gérard, 2011. "The long-run impact of bombing Vietnam," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 1-15, September.
    10. World Bank, 2008. "World Development Indicators 2008," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 11855, December.
    11. Bellows, John & Miguel, Edward, 2009. "War and local collective action in Sierra Leone," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(11-12), pages 1144-1157, December.
    12. K. J. Arrow, 1971. "The Economic Implications of Learning by Doing," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: F. H. Hahn (ed.), Readings in the Theory of Growth, chapter 11, pages 131-149, Palgrave Macmillan.
    13. Teal, Francis, 2000. "Real wages and the demand for skilled and unskilled male labour in Ghana's manufacturing sector: 1991-1995," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 447-461, April.
    14. Frazer, Garth, 2005. "Which Firms Die? A Look at Manufacturing Firm Exit in Ghana," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(3), pages 585-617, April.
    15. Deininger,Klaus W., 2003. "Causes and consequences of civil strife - micro-level evidence from Uganda," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3045, The World Bank.
    16. Baker, Michael, 1992. "Unemployment Duration: Compositional Effects and Cyclical Variability," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(1), pages 313-321, March.
    17. Soderbom, Mans & Teal, Francis & Wambugu, Anthony, 2005. "Unobserved heterogeneity and the relation between earnings and firm size: evidence from two developing countries," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 153-159, May.
    18. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:3085-3139 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. World Bank, 2008. "World Development Indicators 2008," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 28241, December.
    20. Christopher A. Pissarides, 1992. "Loss of Skill During Unemployment and the Persistence of Employment Shocks," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(4), pages 1371-1391.
    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. Ernest Ouédraogo & Ibrahim Ouédraogo & Emmanuel Lompo, 2020. "Political Instability and Firm Performance: A Microeconomic Evidence from Ivory Coast," American Journal of Economics and Business Administration, Science Publications, vol. 12(1), pages 49-55, October.
    2. Joseph J. Capuno, 2017. "Violent conflicts in ARMM: Probing the factors related to local political, identity, and shadow-economy hostilities," UP School of Economics Discussion Papers 201707, University of the Philippines School of Economics.
    3. An, Jiafu & Duan, Tinghua & Hou, Wenxuan & Liu, Xianda, 2020. "The legacy of wars around the world: Evidence from military directors," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    4. Reshad N. Ahsan & Kazi Iqbal, 2020. "How does violence affect exporters? Evidence from political strikes in Bangladesh," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 599-625, August.
    5. Tilman Brück & Wim Naudé & Philip Verwimp, 2013. "Entrepreneurship and Violent Conflict in Developing Countries," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-028, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. John A Stanturf & Scott L Goodrick & Melvin L Warren Jr. & Susan Charnley & Christie M Stegall, 2015. "Social Vulnerability and Ebola Virus Disease in Rural Liberia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-14, September.
    7. Eleftherios Giovanis & Oznur Ozdamar, 2018. "Productivity and Resource Misallocation: Evidence from Firms in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region Countries," Working Papers 1266, Economic Research Forum, revised 10 Dec 2018.
    8. Laurent WAGNER, 2020. "The allocation of resources of national development banks," Working Paper 9c3d4298-95e5-4561-a9cb-5, Agence française de développement.
    9. Reeg, Caroline, 2015. "Micro and small enterprises as drivers for job creation and decent work," IDOS Discussion Papers 10/2015, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    10. Klapper, Leora & Richmond, Christine & Tran, Trang, 2013. "Civil conflict and firm performance : evidence from Cote d'Ivoire," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6640, The World Bank.
    11. Tillman Hönig, 2019. "The Impact of Peace: Evidence from Nigeria," HiCN Working Papers 293, Households in Conflict Network.
    12. Tilman Altenburg & Aimée Hampel-Milagrosa & Markus Loewe, 2017. "A Decade On: How Relevant is the Regulatory Environment for Micro and Small Enterprise Upgrading After All?," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(2), pages 457-475, April.
    13. Florian Leon & Ibrahima Dosso, 2020. "Civil conflict and firm recovery: Evidence from post-electoral crisis in Côte d'Ivoire," Working Papers hal-02865559, HAL.

    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. Christopher Blattman & Edward Miguel, 2010. "Civil War," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 3-57, March.
    2. Serneels , Pieter & Verpoorten , Marijke, 2012. "The impact of armed conflict on economic performance. Evidence from Rwanda," NEPS Working Papers 5/2012, Network of European Peace Scientists.
    3. Waldkirch, Andreas & Ofosu, Andra, 2010. "Foreign Presence, Spillovers, and Productivity: Evidence from Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 1114-1126, August.
    4. Christopher Blattman, 2009. "Civil War: A Review of Fifty Years of Research," Working Papers id:2231, eSocialSciences.
    5. Stefano Costalli & Luigi Moretti & Costantino Pischedda, 2014. "The Economic Costs of Civil War: Synthetic Counterfactual Evidence and the Effects of Ethnic Fractionalization," HiCN Working Papers 184, Households in Conflict Network.
    6. Stergios Skaperdas, 2011. "The costs of organized violence: a review of the evidence," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, March.
    7. Lawrence King & Osvaldo Gómez Martínez, 2010. "Property Rights Reform and Development: A Critique of the Cross-National Regression Literature," Working Papers wp216, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    8. Ochsen, Carsten, 2008. "How the distribution of unemployment by duration affects the unemployment rate," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 88, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.
    9. Dominic Rohner & Mathias Thoenig, 2021. "The Elusive Peace Dividend of Development Policy: From War Traps to Macro Complementarities," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 13(1), pages 111-131, August.
    10. Michael Binder & Georgios Georgiadis, 2010. "Determinants of Human Development: Insights from State-Dependent Panel Models," Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) HDRP-2010-24, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    11. Carmignani, Fabrizio & Mandeville, Thomas, 2014. "Never been industrialized: A tale of African structural change," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 124-137.
    12. Collier,Paul & Duponche, Marguerite, 2010. "The Economic Legacy of Civil War: Firm Level Evidence from Sierra Leone," WIDER Working Paper Series 090, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. Solomon M. Hsiang & Amir S. Jina, 2014. "The Causal Effect of Environmental Catastrophe on Long-Run Economic Growth: Evidence From 6,700 Cyclones," NBER Working Papers 20352, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Fagerberg, Jan & Srholec, Martin & Verspagen, Bart, 2010. "Innovation and Economic Development," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 833-872, Elsevier.
    15. Gallagher, Kevin P. & Shafaeddin, M., 2010. "Policies for industrial learning in China and Mexico," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 81-99.
    16. Bart Cockx & Muriel Dejemeppe, 2005. "Duration dependence in the exit rate out of unemployment in Belgium. Is it true or spurious?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(1), pages 1-23, January.
    17. Belapatiño, Vanessa & Céspedes, Nikita & Gutierrez, Ana Paola, 2014. "La duración del desempleo en Lima Metropolitana," Revista Estudios Económicos, Banco Central de Reserva del Perú, issue 27, pages 67-80.
    18. Stefanie Kleimeier & Roald Versteeg, 2010. "Project finance as a driver of economic growth in low‐income countries," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(2), pages 49-59, April.
    19. Abay,Kibrom A. & Hirfrfot,Kibrom Tafere & Berhane,Guush & Chamberlin,Jordan & Abay,Mehari H., 2022. "Near-Real-Time Welfare and Livelihood Impacts of an Active Civil War : Evidence from Ethiopia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10004, The World Bank.

    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:unu:wpaper:wp-2010-090. 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: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    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.