This mine is mine! How minerals fuel conflicts in Africa

Détails

ID Serval
serval:BIB_2EA837FCBB0B
Type
Rapport: document publié par une institution, habituellement élément d'une série.
Sous-type
Working paper: document de travail dans lequel l'auteur présente les résultats de ses travaux de recherche. Les working papers ont pour but de stimuler les discussions scientifiques avec les milieux intéressés et servent de base pour la publication d'articles dans des revues spécialisées.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Titre
This mine is mine! How minerals fuel conflicts in Africa
Auteur⸱e⸱s
Berman N., Couttenier M., Rohner D., Thoenig M.
Détails de l'institution
CEPR - Centre for Economic Policy Research
Adresse
London, UK
Date de publication
08/2014
Numéro
10089
Genre
Discussion paper
Langue
anglais
Nombre de pages
43
Résumé
This paper studies empirically the impact of mining on conflicts in Africa. Using novel data, we combine geo-referenced information over the 1997-2010 period on the location and characteristics of violent events and mining extraction of 27 minerals. Working with a grid covering all African countries at a spatial resolution of 0.5x0.5 degree, we find a sizeable impact of mining activity on the probability/intensity of conflict at the local level. This is both true for low-level violence (riots, protests), as well as for organized violence (battles). Our main identification strategy exploits exogenous variations in the minerals' world prices; however the results are robust to various alternative strategies, both in the cross-section and panel dimensions. Our estimates suggest that the historical rise in mineral prices observed over the period has contributed to up to 21 percent of the average country-level violence in Africa. The second part of the paper investigates whether minerals, by increasing the financial capacities of fighting groups, contribute to diffuse violence over time and space, therefore affecting the intensity and duration of wars. We find direct evidence that the appropriation of a mining area by a group increases the probability that this group perpetrates future violence elsewhere. This is consistent with "feasibility" theories of conflict. We also find that secessionist insurgencies are more likely in mining areas, which is in line with recent theories of secessionist conflict.
Mots-clé
Minerals, Mines, Conflict, Natural Resources, Rebellion
Création de la notice
12/02/2015 15:27
Dernière modification de la notice
21/08/2019 6:13
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