Renewable Natural Resource Shocks and Conflict Intensity

Kishore Gawande, Devesh Kapur and Shanker Satyanath

Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2017, vol. 61, issue 1, 140-172

Abstract: An interesting stream of the civil conflict literature has identified an important subset of civil conflicts with disastrous consequences, that is, those that emerge as a consequence of shocks to renewable natural resources like land and water. This literature is, however, reliant on qualitative case studies when claiming a causal relationship leading from renewable resource shocks to conflict. In this article, we seek to advance the literature by drawing out the implications of a well-known formal model of the renewable resources–conflict relationship and then conducting rigorous statistical tests of its implications in the case of a serious ongoing civil conflict in India. We find that a one standard deviation decrease in our measure of renewable resources increases killings by nearly 60 percent over the long run.

Keywords: vegetation shocks; Maoists; conflict; instrumental variables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:jocore:v:61:y:2017:i:1:p:140-172

DOI: 10.1177/0022002714567949

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