IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/kyklos/v61y2008i2p320-340.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Social Costs of Civil Conflict: Evidence from Surveys of Happiness

Author

Listed:
  • Heinz Welsch

Abstract

This paper uses data on stated subjective well‐being to capture the intangible costs of civil conflict. By running cross‐national regressions with happiness as the dependent variable, and the number of conflict victims and income as explanatory variables, it investigates if and in which way civil conflict affects happiness, and derives the implied monetary equivalent of the unhappiness caused. The paper finds that the number of conflict victims and their change over time significantly affect subjective well‐being directly through health and psychic effects as well as indirectly through reduced income. The non‐pecuniary effects are found to be larger than the income‐related effect. A change over time in the number of victims has a stronger impact on well‐being than the current number. There are sizeable monetary equivalents to these effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Heinz Welsch, 2008. "The Social Costs of Civil Conflict: Evidence from Surveys of Happiness," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 320-340, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:61:y:2008:i:2:p:320-340
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6435.2008.00404.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6435.2008.00404.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-6435.2008.00404.x?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. Bruno S. Frey & Simon Luechinger & Alois Stutzer, "undated". "Valuing Public Goods: The Life Satisfaction Approach," IEW - Working Papers 184, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. McDonald, Rebecca & Powdthavee, Nattavudh, 2018. "The Shadow Prices of Voluntary Caregiving: Using Panel Data of Well-Being to Estimate the Cost of Informal Care," IZA Discussion Papers 11545, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Clément Bellet, 2017. "Essays on Inequality, Social Preferences and Consumer Behavior," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/vbu6kd1s68o, Sciences Po.
    3. Martin Gassebner & Richard Jong‐A‐Pin & Jochen O. Mierau, 2011. "Terrorism And Cabinet Duration," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 52(4), pages 1253-1270, November.
    4. Timothy Besley & Hannes Mueller, 2012. "Estimating the Peace Dividend: The Impact of Violence on House Prices in Northern Ireland," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 810-833, April.
    5. Peter Egger & Martin Gassebner, 2015. "International terrorism as a trade impediment?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 67(1), pages 42-62.
    6. Meierrieks, Daniel & Renner, Laura, 2021. "Islamist terrorism and the role of women," Discussion Paper Series 2021-02, University of Freiburg, Wilfried Guth Endowed Chair for Constitutional Political Economy and Competition Policy.
    7. Lora, Eduardo & Powell, Andrew, 2011. "A New Way of Monitoring the Quality of Urban Life," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 3806, Inter-American Development Bank.
    8. Anne-Kathrin LAST, 2008. "The Monetary Value of Cultural Goods: A Contingent Valuation Study of the Municipal Supply of Cultural Goods in Lueneburg, Germany," EcoMod2008 23800074, EcoMod.
    9. Paul Hudson & W. J. Wouter Botzen & Jennifer Poussin & Jeroen C. J. H. Aerts, 2019. "Impacts of Flooding and Flood Preparedness on Subjective Well-Being: A Monetisation of the Tangible and Intangible Impacts," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 665-682, February.
    10. Koen Decancq & Marc Fleurbaey & Erik Schokkaert, 2015. "Happiness, Equivalent Incomes and Respect for Individual Preferences," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82, pages 1082-1106, December.
    11. Ümİt Acar & Abdullah Tİrgİl, 2023. "Public expenditures and life satisfaction: Evidence from Turkey," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 61(1), pages 36-56, March.
    12. Stefania Capecchi & Maria Iannario & Rosaria Simone, 2018. "Well-Being and Relational Goods: A Model-Based Approach to Detect Significant Relationships," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 729-750, January.
    13. Freytag, Andreas & Krüger, Jens J. & Meierrieks, Daniel & Schneider, Friedrich, 2011. "The origins of terrorism: Cross-country estimates of socio-economic determinants of terrorism," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(S1), pages 5-16.
    14. Keita, Sekou & Schewe, Paul, 2021. "Out of sight, out of mind? Terror in the home country, family reunification options, and the well-being of refugees," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    15. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2009. "Should National Happiness be Maximized?," Chapters, in: Amitava Krishna Dutt & Benjamin Radcliff (ed.), Happiness, Economics and Politics, chapter 14, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Luechinger, Simon & Stutzer, Alois & Winkelmann, Rainer, 2006. "The Happiness Gains from Sorting and Matching in the Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 2019, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Paul Dolan & Robert Metcalfe, 2008. "Comparing Willingness-to-Pay and Subjective Well-Being in the Context of Non-Market Goods," CEP Discussion Papers dp0890, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    18. Akay, Alpaslan & Bargain, Olivier & Elsayed, Ahmed, 2020. "Global terror, well-being and political attitudes," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    19. Daniel Kuehnle & Christoph Wunder, 2016. "Using the Life Satisfaction Approach to Value Daylight Savings Time Transitions: Evidence from Britain and Germany," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 17(6), pages 2293-2323, December.
    20. Christopher Ambrey & Christopher Fleming & Matthew Manning, 2014. "Perception or Reality, What Matters Most When it Comes to Crime in Your Neighbourhood?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 119(2), pages 877-896, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:kyklos:v:61:y:2008:i:2:p:320-340. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0023-5962 .

    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.