IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hic/wpaper/179.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Making Do with What You Have: Conflict, Firm Performance and Input Misallocation in Palestine

Author

Listed:
  • Francesco Amodio

    () (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

  • Michele Di Maio

    () (University of Naples)

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of conflict on firms' output value and input misallocation in the context of Palestine during the Second Intifada. Using a unique establishment-level dataset, we compare firms' outcomes and input usage over time across districts experiencing differential changes in conflict intensity. We show how conflict diminishes the total and per-worker value of firms' output through the distortions it generates in firms' access to input markets. In particular, lack of access to the market for imported material inputs leads firms to adjust input usage accordingly, substituting domestically produced materials for imported ones. We also empirically identify the relative amount of conflict-induced input distortions. Furthermore, we find that conflict affects disproportionally more those sectors which were more intensive in imported materials and had higher average output value in pre-conflict years. Conflict is thus shown to be particularly harmful for the most productive sectors of the economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Amodio & Michele Di Maio, 2014. "Making Do with What You Have: Conflict, Firm Performance and Input Misallocation in Palestine," HiCN Working Papers 179, Households in Conflict Network.
    • Handle: RePEc:hic:wpaper:179
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.hicn.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/HiCN-WP-1792.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Singh, Prakarsh, 2011. "Impact of terrorism on investment decisions of farmers: evidence from the Punjab insurgency," MPRA Paper 33328, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Massimo Guidolin & Eliana La Ferrara, 2007. "Diamonds Are Forever, Wars Are Not: Is Conflict Bad for Private Firms?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1978-1993, December.
    3. Sami Miaari & Robert Sauer, 2011. "The labor market costs of conflict: closures, foreign workers, and Palestinian employment and earnings," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 129-148, March.
    4. Adriana Camacho & Catherine Rodriguez, 2013. "Firm Exit and Armed Conflict in Colombia," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 57(1), pages 89-116, February.
    5. Christopher Ksoll & Rocco Macchiavello & Ameet Morjaria, 2010. "The Effect of Ethnic Violence on an Export- Oriented Industry," CID Working Papers 48, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    6. Mansour, Hani, 2010. "The effects of labor supply shocks on labor market outcomes: Evidence from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 930-939, December.
    7. Mansour, Hani & Rees, Daniel I., 2012. "Armed conflict and birth weight: Evidence from the al-Aqsa Intifada," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 190-199.
    8. Mary Amiti & Jozef Konings, 2007. "Trade Liberalization, Intermediate Inputs, and Productivity: Evidence from Indonesia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1611-1638, December.
    9. Kasahara, Hiroyuki & Lapham, Beverly, 2013. "Productivity and the decision to import and export: Theory and evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 297-316.
    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. Calì, Massimiliano & Miaari, Sami H., 2018. "The labor market impact of mobility restrictions: Evidence from the West Bank," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 136-151.
    12. Paul Collier & Marguerite Duponchel, 2013. "The Economic Legacy of Civil War," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 57(1), pages 65-88, February.
    13. Diego Restuccia & Richard Rogerson, 2008. "Policy Distortions and Aggregate Productivity with Heterogeneous Plants," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 11(4), pages 707-720, October.
    14. Kasahara, Hiroyuki & Rodrigue, Joel, 2008. "Does the use of imported intermediates increase productivity? Plant-level evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 106-118, August.
    15. Awad Mataria & Rita Giacaman & Angelo Stefanini & Nirmala Naidoo & Paul Kowal & Somnath Chatterji, 2009. "The quality of life of Palestinians living in chronic conflict: assessment and determinants," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 10(1), pages 93-101, February.
    16. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November.
    17. Di Maio, Michele & Nandi, Tushar K., 2013. "The effect of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict on child labor and school attendance in the West Bank," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 107-116.
    18. Efraim Benmelech & Claude Berrebi & Esteban Klor, 2010. "Counter-Suicide-Terrorism: Evidence from House Demolitions," NBER Working Papers 16493, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Paul Collier & V. L. Elliott & Håvard Hegre & Anke Hoeffler & Marta Reynal-Querol & Nicholas Sambanis, 2003. "Breaking the Conflict Trap : Civil War and Development Policy," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 13938, September.
    20. Nabil Aranki, Ted, 2004. "The Effect of Israeli Closure Policy on Wage Earnings in the West Bank and Gaza Strip," Working Papers 2004:4, Örebro University, School of Business.
    21. Asaf Zussman & Noam Zussman & Morten Orregaard Nielsen, 2008. "Asset Market Perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 75(297), pages 84-115, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    Keywords

    conflict; firms; misallocation; Palestine; Second Intifada;

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • N45 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Asia including Middle East
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hic:wpaper:179. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Alia Aghajanian) or () or () or (). General contact details of provider: http://www.hicn.org .

    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 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.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.