The Economic Origins of Conflict in Africa

Eoin McGuirk and Marshall Burke

No 23056, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We study the impact of plausibly exogenous global food price shocks on local violence across the African continent. In food-producing areas, higher food prices reduce conflict over the control of territory (what we call "factor conflict") and increase conflict over the appropriation of surplus ("output conflict"). We argue that this difference arises because higher prices raise the opportunity cost of soldiering for producers, while simultaneously inducing net consumers to appropriate increasingly valuable surplus as their real wages fall. In regions without crop agriculture, higher food prices increase both factor conflict and output conflict. We validate local-level findings on output conflict using geocoded survey data on interpersonal theft and violence against commercial farmers and traders. Ignoring the distinction between producer and consumer effects leads to attenuated estimates. Our findings help reconcile a growing but ambiguous literature on the economic roots of conflict.

JEL-codes: D74 H56 O10 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-dev
Note: DEV EEE POL
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

Published as Eoin McGuirk & Marshall Burke, 2020. "The Economic Origins of Conflict in Africa," Journal of Political Economy, vol 128(10), pages 3940-3997.

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Working Paper: The Economic Origins of Conflict in Africa (2017)
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