IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/6397.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

What is a civil war ? a critical review of its definition and (econometric) consequences

Author

Listed:
  • Gersovitz, Mark
  • Kriger, Norma

Abstract

The authors argue that the academic literature, both qualitative and quantitative, has mislabeled most episodes of large-scale violence in Africa as civil war; these episodes better fit their concept of regional war complexes. The paper seeks to highlight the fundamental flaws in the conception of civil war in the econometric literature and their implications for econometric specification and estimation, problems that this literature is inherently incapable of rectifying. The authors advocate the comparative study of regional war complexes in Africa based on historical narratives.

Suggested Citation

  • Gersovitz, Mark & Kriger, Norma, 2013. "What is a civil war ? a critical review of its definition and (econometric) consequences," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6397, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6397
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2013/04/03/000158349_20130403082529/Rendered/PDF/wps6397.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Silve, Arthur & Verdier, Thierry, 2018. "A theory of regional conflict complexes," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 434-447.
    2. António S. Cruz & Fausto Mafambissa & Francisco Fernandes & Francisco Pereira, 2018. "The construction sector in Mozambique: An overview," WIDER Working Paper Series 117, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Balestri Sara & Maggioni Mario A., 2014. "Blood Diamonds, Dirty Gold and Spatial Spill-overs Measuring Conflict Dynamics in West Africa," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 20(4), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Massimiliano Calì & Alen Mulabdic, 2017. "Trade and civil conflict: Revisiting the cross-country evidence," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 195-232, February.
    5. Carmignani, Fabrizio & Kler, Parvinder, 2016. "Surrounded by wars: Quantifying the role of spatial conflict spillovers," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 7-16.
    6. Sarabjit Kaur, 2020. "Do Economic Inequalities Generate Political Conflict? An Insight into Civil War and Niger Delta Crisis in Nigeria," Insight on Africa, , vol. 12(2), pages 160-174, July.
    7. Mohammad Ajmal Hameed & Mohammad Mafizur Rahman & Rasheda Khanam, 2023. "Analyzing the Consequences of Long-Run Civil War on Unemployment Rate: Empirical Evidence from Afghanistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-21, April.
    8. António S. Cruz & Francisco Fernandes & Fausto J. Mafambissa & Francisco Pereira, 2018. "The construction sector in Mozambique: An overview," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-117, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Jordan Adamson, 2021. "The scope of political jurisdictions and violence: theory and evidence from Africa," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 186(3), pages 467-490, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Post Conflict Reconstruction; Peace&Peacekeeping; Post Conflict Reintegration; International Affairs; Hazard Risk Management;
    All these keywords.

    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:wbk:wbrwps:6397. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    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.