Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/74994 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
LICOS Discussion Paper No. 275
Publisher: 
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, LICOS Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, Leuven
Abstract: 
Rich measures of micro-level violent intensity are jey for succesfully providing insight into the legacy of civil war. Yet, the debate on how exactly conflict intensity should be measured has just started. This paper aims to fuel this awakening debate. It is demonstrated how existing and widely available data - population census data - can provide the basis for a useful measure of micro-level conflict intenisty, i.e. a fine Wartime Excess Mortality Index (WEMI). In contrast to measures that are based on news reports or data from transitional justice records, WEMI is relatively neutral to the cause of excess mortality, giving equal weight to victims belonging to the conquering and defeated party, to victims of large-scale massacres and dispersed killings, to victims of violence. The measure is illustrated for the case of Rwanda and it is shown that in a straightforward empirical application of the impact of firmed conflict on schooling different measures for micro-level conflict intensity yield strikingly different results.
Subjects: 
Armed Conflict
Micro-level conflict intensity measures
Difference-in-Difference
Rwanda
Schooling
JEL: 
C81
O15
C21
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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