Economic backwardness and social tension

Christa Brunnschweiler and Paivi Lujala
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Paivi Lujala: Norwegian University of Science and Technology

No 72, University of East Anglia Applied and Financial Economics Working Paper Series from School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.

Abstract: We propose that relative economic backwardness contributes to the build-up of social tension and the incidence of both nonviolent and violent forms of opposition to the current political regime. We take inspiration from Gerschenkron's (1962) essay on economic backwardness and more recent findings on international comparisons and status-seeking to develop a testable hypothesis. We use information on a large number of countries and years from a new dataset on episodes of organized mass movements and find that greater economic backwardness is indeed consistently linked to a higher probability of seeing both violent and nonviolent forms of civil unrest. IV estimations using three different instruments, including distance to either London or Washington, D.C., and mailing speeds and telegram charges around 1900, suggest that this relationship is causal.

Date: 2015-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro, nep-pol and nep-soc
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Journal Article: Economic Backwardness and Social Tension (2019)
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