"Civil War is Not a Stupid Thing": exploring growth, distribution and conflict linkages

Christopher Cramer

No 73, Working Papers from Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK

Abstract: Recent literature has highlighted the role of political instability in the relationship between growth and inequality. This literature ranges from warnings of rural uprisings in work on agrarian relations and economic performance (Binswanger et al, 1995) to econometric analysis of cross-country data for variables including inequality, democracy and growth (Alesina and Perotti, 1993, 1994). Indeed, the inclusion of a broader range of variables appears to be one reason why recent econometric contributions produce different "results" from earlier attempts to find empirical evidence of regular patterns connecting growth and distribution. The extent to which this literature, which is now reaching the proportions of a new received wisdom, has yet provided an adequate explanatory foundation for the alleged results of statistical analysis is debatable. But some commentators with an interest in conflict, or civil war, in developing countries have seized eagerly on these arguments since they appear to provide something lacking in the analysis of such wars, i.e. serious economic foundations.

Pages: 31 pages
Date: 1998
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