Violent Conflict and Inequality

Çağatay Bircan, Tilman Brück and Marc Vothknecht ()
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Marc Vothknecht: European Commission

No 4990, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper analyzes the distributive impacts of violent conflicts, which is in contrast to previous literature that has focused on the other direction. We use cross-country panel data for the time period 1960-2005 to estimate war-related changes in income inequality. Our results indicate rising levels of inequality during war and especially in the early period of post-war reconstruction. However, we find that this rise in income inequality is not permanent. While inequality peaks around five years after the end of a conflict, it declines again to pre-war levels within the end of the first post-war period. Lagged effects of conflict and only subsequent adjustments of redistributive policies in the period of post-war reconstruction seem to be valid explanations for these patterns of inequality. A series of alternative specifications confirms the main findings of the analysis.

Keywords: conflict; war; inequality; reconstruction; income distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O11 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2010-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Published - published in: Oxford Development Studies, 2017, 45(2), 125-44.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Violent conflict and inequality (2017)
Working Paper: Violent conflict and inequality (2010)
Working Paper: Violent Conflict and Inequality (2010)
Working Paper: Violent Conflict and Inequality (2010)
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