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The intensity of the Rwandan genocide: Fine measures from the gacaca records

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  • Marijke Verpoorten

Abstract

This article demonstrates how …ne continuous and categorical measures of genocide intensity can be derived from the records of the Rwandan transitional justice system. The data, which include the number of genocide suspects and genocide survivors across 1484 administrative sectors, are highly skewed and con- tain a non-negligible number of outlying observations. After deriving nine proxies of genocide intensity from the data, various sets of these proxies are subjected to skewness-adjusted Robust Principal Component Analysis (ROBPCA), yielding four distinct continuous indices of genocide intensity. The e¤ect of survival bias on these indices is reduced by augmenting the set of genocide proxies subjected to ROBPCA with the distance from an administrative sector to the nearest mass grave. Finally, the administrative sectors are divided into distinct categories of low, moderate and high genocide intensity by means of Local Indicators of Spatial Auto-Correlation (LISA) that allow identifying signi…cant high-high and low-low clusters of genocide intensity.

Suggested Citation

  • Marijke Verpoorten, 2010. "The intensity of the Rwandan genocide: Fine measures from the gacaca records," LICOS Discussion Papers 25610, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven.
    • Handle: RePEc:lic:licosd:25610
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    File URL: http://www.econ.kuleuven.be/licos/publications/dp/dp256.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Bonnier, Evelina & Poulsen, Jonas & Rogall, Thorsten & Stryjan, Miri, 2015. "Preparing for Genocide: Community Work in Rwanda," Working Paper Series 2015:1, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    2. Gautier, Thomas, 2025. "From missing brothers to educated sisters: The effects of victimization during the Rwandan genocide," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 318207, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    3. Bonnier, Evelina & Poulsen, Jonas & Rogall, Thorsten & Stryjan, Miri, 2020. "Preparing for genocide: Quasi-experimental evidence from Rwanda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    4. Verpoorten, Marijke, 2011. "Measure for measure: how well do we measure micro-level conflict intensity?," IOB Working Papers 2011.08, Universiteit Antwerpen, Institute of Development Policy (IOB).
    5. Guariso Andrea & Verpoorten Marijke, 2019. "Armed Conflict and Schooling in Rwanda: Digging Deeper," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 25(1), pages 1-40, February.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • Y80 - Miscellaneous Categories - - Related Disciplines - - - Related Disciplines

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