Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36871 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4990
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper analyzes the distributive impacts of violent conflicts, which is in contrast to previous literature that has focused on the other direction. We use cross-country panel data for the time period 1960-2005 to estimate war-related changes in income inequality. Our results indicate rising levels of inequality during war and especially in the early period of post-war reconstruction. However, we find that this rise in income inequality is not permanent. While inequality peaks around five years after the end of a conflict, it declines again to pre-war levels within the end of the first post-war period. Lagged effects of conflict and only subsequent adjustments of redistributive policies in the period of post-war reconstruction seem to be valid explanations for these patterns of inequality. A series of alternative specifications confirms the main findings of the analysis.
Subjects: 
Conflict
war
inequality
reconstruction
income distribution
JEL: 
O11
O15
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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