When the Identity of the Perpetrator Matters: The Heterogeneous Legacies of the Civil Conflict on Social Capital in Peru

We exploit the progression of the Peruvian conflict (1980–2000) over time and space to show that individuals’ responses to conflict violence are affected by the identity of the perpetrator. We find that a 1 standard deviation increase in exposure to all violence (from government and terrorists) reduces the perception of the importance of voting and the probability of voting by 1.4% and 1.8% (of each variable mean). However, distinguishing by the perpetrator’s identity unveils contrasting effects. A 1 standard deviation increase in exposure to government violence reduces the perception of voting importance by 4.8% and reduces participation in civil organizations by 12.8% as well as the perception that democracy works or matters by 4.8% and 3.3%. In contrast, exposure to terrorist violence strengthens social capital, although the size of the effects tends to be smaller. In addition, the period from the late teens to early twenties seems key to influencing later voting behavior, participation, and democratic beliefs. Results are robust to pretrends in the outcome variables, multiple hypothesis testing corrections, and selection into migration.