Provision of Public Goods and Violent Conflict: Evidence from Colombia

Darwin Cortes, Daniel Montolio

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch Articlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Colombian conflict has lasted for around 50 years. It has been fueled by the financial opportunities coming from production and traffic of ilegal drugs, and predation of other natural resources. In such a context it is not clear what policies are more effective to reduce conflict. Two public policies that are frequently mentioned as effective to reduce conflict are investments in roads and education. However, a priori, both investments in roads and education may either increase or reduce conflict. After controlling for posible problems of endogeneity, we show that increases in roads provision reduces conflict while education does not. Because this is robust to controlling for measures of state capacity and governance, and the opportunity cost of conflict, our results are likely to be explained by the relative mobility of education and roads. Policies that increase roads provision might help to fight against the intensity of conflict.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)143 - 167
Number of pages25
JournalPeace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy
Volume20
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Economics, Econometrics and Finance(all)

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