The Geography of Inter-State Resource Wars

Francesco Caselli, Massimo Morelli () and Dominic Rohner

Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie from Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie

Abstract: We establish a theoretical as well as empirical framework to assess the role of resource endowments and their geographic location for inter-State conflict. The main predictions of the theory are that conflict tends to be more likely when at least one country has natural resources; when the resources in the resource-endowed country are closer to the border; and, in the case where both countries have natural resources, when the resources are located asymmetrically vis-a-vis the border. We test these predictions on a novel dataset featuring oilfield distances from bilateral borders. The empirical analysis shows that the presence and location of oil are significant and quantitatively important predictors of inter-State conflicts after WW2.

Keywords: Conflict; Interstate War; Border Disputes; Natural Resources; Oil; Asymmetry; Geography (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 D74 F51 Q34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51pp. + tables (total 55 pp.)
Date: 2013-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis and nep-ene
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130(1), February 2015, pp.267-315

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.hec.unil.ch/deep/textes/13.06.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Geography of Interstate Resource Wars (2015)
Working Paper: The geography of interstate resource wars (2015)
Working Paper: The Geography of Inter-State Resource Wars (2013)
Working Paper: The Geography of Inter-State Resource Wars (2013)
Working Paper: The geography of inter-state resource wars (2013)
Working Paper: The Geography of Inter-State Resource Wars (2013)
Working Paper: The Geography of Inter-State Resource Wars (2013)
Working Paper: The Geography of Inter-State Resource Wars (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lau:crdeep:13.06

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