Why Internal Conflict Deteriorates State Capacity? Evidence from Colombian Municipalities

Mauricio Cardenas, Marcela Eslava and Santiago Ramírez

No 11940, Documentos CEDE from Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE

Abstract: Previous work has documented a negative correlation between internal conflict and state capacity. We attempt to shed light on mechanisms that underlie this relationship, using data for Colombian municipalities. We rely on identifying heterogeneous effects of different types of violent events on state capacity, taking advantage of variability across municipalities in the prevalence of specific manifestations of conflict and their intensity. Our findings suggest that events making civilians feel targeted affect the state’s capacity to collect taxes, while those reflecting a stronger military capacity of illegal armies, in particular their large-scale attacks, affect the state’s capacity to provide public goods.

Keywords: State capacity; state capacity at the local level; internal conflict; Colombia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35
Date: 2013-12-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lam and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:col:000089:011940

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