Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/227263 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 13736
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We explore the effect of historical ethnic borders on contemporary conflict in Africa. We document that both the intensive and extensive margins of contemporary conflict are higher close to historical ethnic borders. Exploiting variations across artificial regions within an ethnicity's historical homeland and a theory-based instrumental variable approach, we find that regions crossed by historical ethnic borders have 27 percentage points higher probability of conflict and 7.9 percentage points higher probability of being the initial location of a conflict. We uncover several key underlying mechanisms: competition for agricultural land, population pressure, cultural similarity and weak property rights.
Subjects: 
borders
conflict
territory
property rights
landownership
population pressure
migration
historical homelands
development
Africa
Voronoi tessellation
Thiessen tessellation
JEL: 
D74
N57
O13
O17
O43
P48
Q15
Q34
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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