Discrimination in the Warplace: Evidence from a Civil War in Peru

24 Pages Posted: 14 Nov 2007

See all articles by Marco Castillo

Marco Castillo

Texas A&M University

Ragan Petrie

Texas A&M University - Department of Economics; University of Melbourne - Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research

Date Written: November 2007

Abstract

Few events give the opportunity to observe the full range of human behavior as wars do. In the case of civil wars in ethnically-mixed societies, the distribution of violence across various segments of the population can provide evidence on the extent and nature of discrimination. As in the case of markets, identifying discrimination in the warplace is challenging. There is uncertainty on the reconstruction of events as well as the rationale behind the violence. We use a unique data set collected by the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission on war crimes during the 1980's to show that there is evidence of taste-based discrimination by agents of the state towards ethnic minorities and women. The evidence is robust to different assumptions on the logic of repression and missing data problems.

Suggested Citation

Castillo, Marco and Petrie, Ragan, Discrimination in the Warplace: Evidence from a Civil War in Peru (November 2007). Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Research Paper Series No. 07-37, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1030057 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1030057

Marco Castillo (Contact Author)

Texas A&M University ( email )

5201 University Blvd.
College Station, TX 77843-4228
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.marcocastillo.org

Ragan Petrie

Texas A&M University - Department of Economics ( email )

4228 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-4228
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.raganpetrie.org/

University of Melbourne - Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research ( email )

Level 5, FBE Building, 111 Barry Street
Parkville, Victoria 3010
Australia

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
114
Abstract Views
1,226
Rank
435,891
PlumX Metrics