Resources and Governance in Sierra Leone's Civil War. Issue 2 (1st February 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Voors, Maarten; Van Der Windt, Peter; Papaioannou, Kostadis J.; Bulte, Erwin
• Is Part Of: Journal of development studies. Volume 53:Issue 2(2017)
• Page Start: 278
• Page End: 294
• Publication Date: 2017-02-01
• Subjects: Economic development -- Periodicals; Economic history -- 1945- -- Periodicals; Developing countries -- Economic conditions -- Periodicals; Développement économique -- Périodiques; Histoire économique -- 1945- -- Périodiques; Pays en voie de développement -- Conditions économiques -- Périodiques; 338.91
• DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2016.1160068
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-0388

Abstract

Abstract: We empirically investigate the role of natural resources, and governance in explaining variation in the intensity of conflict during the 1991–2002 civil war in Sierra Leone. As a proxy for governance quality we exploit exogenous variation in political competition at the level of the chieftaincy. As a proxy for resources we use data on the location of pre-war mining sites. Our main result is that neither governance nor resources robustly explains the onset or duration of violence during the civil war in Sierra Leone.