Book/Printed Material Rural windfall or a new resource curse? coca, income, and civil conflict in Colombia
About this Item
Title
- Rural windfall or a new resource curse? coca, income, and civil conflict in Colombia
Summary
- "Natural and agricultural resources for which there is a substantial black market, such as coca, opium, and diamonds, appear especially likely to be exploited by the parties to a civil conflict. On the other hand, these resources may also provide one of the few reliable sources of income in the countryside. In this paper, we study the economic and social consequences of a major shift in the production of coca paste from Peru and Bolivia to Colombia, where most coca leaf is now harvested. This shift, which arose in response to the disruption of the "air bridge" that previously ferried coca paste into Colombia, provided an exogenous boost in the demand for Colombian coca leaf. Our analysis shows this shift generated economic gains in rural areas, primarily in the form of increased self-employment earnings and increased labor supply by teenage boys. There is little evidence of widespread economic spillovers, however. The results also suggest that the rural areas which saw accelerated coca production subsequently became much more violent. Taken together, these findings support the view that the Colombian civil conflict is fueled by the financial opportunities that coca provides. This is in line with a recent literature which attributes the extension of civil conflicts to economic rewards and an environment that favors insurgency more than to the persistence of economic or political grievances"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Names
- Angrist, Joshua David
- Kugler, Adriana D.
- National Bureau of Economic Research
Created / Published
- Cambridge, MA : National Bureau of Economic Research, c2005.
Headings
- - Coca industry--Colombia
- - Coca--Economic aspects--Colombia
- - Coca--Social aspects--Colombia
- - Resource curse--Colombia
- - Rural development--Colombia
Notes
- - Title from PDF file as viewed on 3/30/2005.
- - Includes bibliographical references.
- - Also available in print.
- - Mode of access: World Wide Web.
- - System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Call Number/Physical Location
- HB1
Digital Id
- https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/gdcebookspublic.2005617148
- http://papers.nber.org/papers/w11219 External
Library of Congress Control Number
- 2005617148
Access Advisory
- Unrestricted online access
Online Format
- image