Economic backwardness and social tension

Brunnschweiler, Christa N. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8610-6433 and Lujala, Päivi (2019) Economic backwardness and social tension. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 121 (2). pp. 482-516. ISSN 0347-0520

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Abstract

We propose that relative economic backwardness contributes to the build-up of social tension and non-violent and violent conflict. We test our hypothesis using data on organized mass movements and armed civil conflict. The findings show that greater economic backwardness is consistently linked to a higher probability of onset of violent and especially non-violent forms of civil unrest. We provide evidence that the relationship is causal in instrumental variables estimations using new instruments, including mailing speeds and telegram charges around 1900. The magnitude of the effect of backwardness on social tension increases in the two-stage least-squares estimations.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: economic backwardness,economic development,conflict,social tension,iv estimation,conflict,instrumental variables estimation,economics and econometrics,sdg 8 - decent work and economic growth,sdg 16 - peace, justice and strong institutions ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2000/2002
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Economics
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Environment, Resources and Conflict
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Applied Econometrics And Finance
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Sciences
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Behavioural Economics
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Behavioural and Experimental Development Economics
University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
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Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 06 Sep 2017 05:06
Last Modified: 04 Jul 2023 14:30
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/64758
DOI: 10.1111/sjoe.12281

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