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Violent conflicts and state capacity: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

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  • Babajide, Adedoyin
  • Ahmad, Ahmad Hassan
  • Coleman, Simeon

Abstract

This paper investigates the impacts of conflicts on state-capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), a region that has recorded a disproportionate number of armed conflicts and has a high presence in the Fragile States Index rankings. Individually, both conflicts and state-capacity are known to have important implications for economic development, which underscore their relevance for developing countries. Our aim here is to analyze the relationship between them and for this, we analyze a panel of 49 SSA countries spanning 2000–2015. Our results suggest that the effect of conflicts on state-capacity depends on the variable used to proxy state-capacity is important: conflicts diminish state-capacity when tax revenue is used as the proxy, but the effect is positive when proxied by military expenditure. Other proxies consider include regulatory quality, rule of law, and government effectiveness.

Suggested Citation

  • Babajide, Adedoyin & Ahmad, Ahmad Hassan & Coleman, Simeon, 2021. "Violent conflicts and state capacity: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Government and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jogoec:v:3:y:2021:i:c:s2667319321000197
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jge.2021.100019
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Timothy Besley & Torsten Persson, 2009. "The Origins of State Capacity: Property Rights, Taxation, and Politics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1218-1244, September.
    3. Francis Fukuyama, 2013. "What Is Governance?," Working Papers 314, Center for Global Development.
    4. J. Paul Dunne & Ron Smith & Dirk Willenbockel, 2005. "Models Of Military Expenditure And Growth: A Critical Review," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(6), pages 449-461.
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    Cited by:

    1. Vesco, P. & Baliki, G. & Brück, T. & Döring, S. & Eriksson, A. & Fjelde, H. & Guha-Sapir, D. & Hall, J. & Knutsen, C. H. & Leis, M. R. & Mueller, H. & Rauh, C. & Rudolfsen, I. & Swain, A., 2024. "The Impacts of Armed Conflict on Human Development," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2462, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Scalamonti, Francesco, 2024. "The foreign investments-growth nexus in underdeveloped countries: the state-of-art of research analysing a selected and recent empirical literature (2020-2022)," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    3. Singh, Risha & Goli, Srinivas & Singh, Abhra, 2022. "Armed conflicts and girl child marriages: A global evidence," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    4. Enyang Besong Susan & Agbortarh Besong Matilda & Nyonsue Ebi Epey, 2024. "The anglophone crisis in Cameroon and sustainable development: A causal‐process tracing approach," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 6903-6917, December.
    5. Abel Ezeoha & Anthony Igwe & Chinwe Okoyeuzu & Chibuike Uche, 2023. "The fiscal effects of armed conflicts in Africa," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 35(4), pages 444-456, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    State capacity; Internal armed conflicts; External armed conflicts; Sub-Saharan Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • H00 - Public Economics - - General - - - General
    • O20 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - General
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

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