Commodity Shocks, Factor Intensity and Conflicts in Africa

Marcelo Gantier Mita

No 6/2020, Documentos de trabajo from Instituto de Investigaciones Socio-Económicas (IISEC), Universidad Católica Boliviana

Abstract: Natural resources are often related to conflicts. The Dal Bó & Dal Bó (2011) theory states that income shocks affect capital- and labor-intensive sectors differently. Using sub-national cells covering the African continent for 1997-2010, I find that conflicts react differently to positive commodity price shocks depending on their factor intensity. The results show that a positive shock in the capital-intensive mining sector increases conflict likelihood, whereas a positive shock in the labor-intensive agricultural sector reduces it. These impacts are higher for sub-Saharan Africa. When testing heterogeneous effects for the degree of commodity appropriability, historical African-specific factors, and quality of institutions, I find that easily taxed crops behave differently to an increase in international crop prices. In the same vein, I find that neither historical African-specific factors nor the quality of institutions seem to induce differential responses in conflicts to commodity price shocks.

Keywords: Recursos Naturales; Conflictos; Commodity Shocks; Instituto de Investigaciones Socio-Económicas; IISEC. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2020-11-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-dev
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:iisecd:2020_006

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