Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/62403 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 6827
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
I discuss the application of capture-recapture methods to estimating the total number of deaths in armed conflicts, and propose an alternative method based on a trivariate discrete choice model. Data come from the 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission' (TRC) of Peru, around 25000 deaths, classified by three sources of information, geographical strata, and perpetrator: the State and the Shining Path. In these data many killings have been only documented by one source, which makes a projection of killings unfeasible. TRC consultants Ball et al. (2003) tried to overcome this problem by means of a 'residual estimation,' consisting of merging data for different perpetrators. I show theoretically and empirically that this method over-estimates the number of deaths. Using a conditional trivariate Probit I estimate the total number of deaths in around 28000, 60% by the State, 40% by the Shining Path. This number is substantially lower and has a different composition than the around 69000 deaths, 30% by the State, 46% by the Shining Path, and 24% by 'other perpetrators,' calculated by Ball et al.
Subjects: 
armed conflict
capture-recapture
count data
discrete choice
human rights
maximum-likelihood estimation
Poisson regression
JEL: 
D74
C35
C4
O54
P16
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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