Resources and Governance in Sierra Leone’s Civil War

Published in Journal of Development Studies: 2017, 53(2), 278-294.

34 Pages Posted: 10 Feb 2020

See all articles by Maarten Voors

Maarten Voors

Wageningen University and Research (WUR)

Peter Van der Windt

New York University (NYU) - New York University, Abu Dhabi

Kostadis Papaioannou

London School of Economics and Political Science

Erwin H. Bulte

Wageningen University and Research (WUR) - Development Economics Group

Date Written: September 7, 2015

Abstract

We empirically investigate the role of natural resources, and bad 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.

Keywords: Conflict, Governance, Natural resources, Sierra Leone

JEL Classification: D74, O13

Suggested Citation

Voors, Maarten and Van der Windt, Peter and Papaioannou, Kostadis and Bulte, Erwin H., Resources and Governance in Sierra Leone’s Civil War (September 7, 2015). Published in Journal of Development Studies: 2017, 53(2), 278-294., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3520495

Maarten Voors (Contact Author)

Wageningen University and Research (WUR) ( email )

Hollandseweg 1
Wageningen, 6706KN
Netherlands

Peter Van der Windt

New York University (NYU) - New York University, Abu Dhabi ( email )

Abu Dhabi
United Arab Emirates

Kostadis Papaioannou

London School of Economics and Political Science ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Erwin H. Bulte

Wageningen University and Research (WUR) - Development Economics Group ( email )

Hollandseweg 1
WAGENINGEN, 6706 KN
Netherlands

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