Behavioral differences in violence: The case of intra-group differences of Paramilitaries and Guerrillas in Colombia

Thomas Bassetti, Raul Caruso () and Darwin Cortés

No ispe0073, DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Politica Economica from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE)

Abstract: In most studies on civil wars, determinants of conflict have been hitherto explored assuming that actors involved were either unitary or stable. However, if this intra-group homogeneity assumption does not hold, empirical econometric estimates may be biased. We use Fixed Effects Finite Mixture Model (FE-FMM) approach to address this issue that provides a representation of heterogeneity when data originate from different latent classes and the affiliation is unknown. It allows to identify sub-populations within a population as well as the determinants of their behaviors. By combining various data sources for the period 2000-2005, we apply this methodology to the Colombian conflict. Our results highlight a behavioral heterogeneity in guerrilla’s armed groups and their distinct economic correlates. By contrast paramilitaries behave as a rather homogenous group.

Keywords: Finite Mixture Models; Colombian Conflict; Behavioral Differences in Conflict (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C46 D74 H72 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41
Date: 2015-07
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http://istituti.unicatt.it/politica-economica-ISPE0073.pdf First version, 2015 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Behavioral differences in violence: The case of intra-group differences of Paramilitaries and Guerrillas in Colombia (2015)
Working Paper: Behavioral Differences in Violence: The Case of Intra-Group Differences of Paramilitaries and Guerrillas in Colombia (2015)
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