Natural Resources and Violent Conflict: Resource Abundance, Dependenc and the Onset of Civil Wars

Christa Brunnschweiler and Erwin Bulte

No 18, OxCarre Working Papers from Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford

Abstract: In this paper we examine the claim that natural resources invite civil conflict, and challenge the main stylized facts in this literature. We find that the conventional measure of resource dependence is endogenous with respect to conflict, and that instrumenting for dependence implies that it is no longer significant in conflict regressions. Instead, it appears that conflict increases dependence on resource extraction (as a default sector). Moreover, resource abundance is associated with a reduced probability of the onset of war. These results are robust to a range of specifications and, considering the conflict channel, we conclude there is no reason to regard resources as a general curse to peace and development.

Keywords: Civil war; resource abundance; resource dependence; greed versus grievance; resource curse (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N40 N50 O11 Q34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-01-06
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (136)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Natural resources and violent conflict: resource abundance, dependence, and the onset of civil wars (2009)
Working Paper: Natural Resources and Violent Conflict: Resource Abundance, Dependence and the Onset of Civil Wars (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oxf:oxcrwp:018

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