Electoral violence and supply chain disruptions in Kenya's floriculture industry

Christopher Ksoll, Rocco Macchiavello and Ameet Morjaria

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Violent conflicts, particularly at election times in Africa, are a common cause of instability and economic disruption. This paper studies how firms react to electoral violence using the case of Kenyan flower exporters during the 2008 postelection violence as an example. The violence induced a large negative supply shock that reduced exports primarily through workers’ absence and had heterogeneous effects: larger firms and those with direct contractual relationships in export markets suffered smaller production and loss of workers. On the demand side, global buyers were not able to shift sourcing to Kenyan exporters located in areas not directly affected by the violence or to neighboring Ethiopian suppliers. Consistent with difficulties in ensuring against supply-chain risk disruptions caused by electoral violence, firms in direct contractual relationships ramp up shipments just before the subsequent 2013 presidential election to mitigate risk.

Keywords: STICERD (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J01 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 2023-11-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-cta
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Review of Economics and Statistics, 17, November, 2023, 105(6), pp. 1335 – 1351. ISSN: 0034-6535

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/112128/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Electoral Violence and Supply Chain Disruptions in Kenya's Floriculture Industry (2023)
Working Paper: Electoral Violence and Supply Chain Disruptions in Kenya's Floriculture Industry (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:112128

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