Rural Windfall or a New Resource Curse? Coca, Income, and Civil Conflict in Colombia

@article{citeulike:1616855, abstract = {Author contact info: Joshua Angrist Department of Economics MIT, E52-353 50 Memorial Drive Cambridge, MA 02142-1347 Tel: 617/253-8909 Fax: 617/253-1330 E-Mail: angrist@mit.edu Adriana D. Kugler University of Houston Department of Economics 204 McElhinney Hall Houston, TX 77204-5019 Tel: 713/743-3832 Fax: 713/743-3798 E-Mail: adkugler@uh.edu 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.}, author = {Angrist, Joshua D. and Kugler, Adriana }, citeulike-article-id = {1616855}, comment = {The authors are particularly interested in Columbia because of increases in the coca production in rural areas of Columbia and changes on the income level there. They look at how these things affected violence in rural areas (for them, violence is measured by the \# of homicides in a region). Findings: They found sharply increased violent death rates in rural areas where they started producing coca. They saw an increase in self-employment income, but not sure if it was from coca production. Increases in come did not lead to a reduction in civil conflict. }, journal = {National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series}, keywords = {cocain, columbia, geography}, month = {March}, pages = {11219+}, posted-at = {2007-09-03 23:51:43}, priority = {0}, title = {Rural Windfall or a New Resource Curse? Coca, Income, and Civil Conflict in Colombia}, url = {http://www.nber.org/papers/w11219}, year = {2005} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1616855 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1616855 TI - Rural Windfall or a New Resource Curse? Coca, Income, and Civil Conflict in Colombia JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series SP - 11219 N2 - Author contact info: Joshua Angrist Department of Economics MIT, E52-353 50 Memorial Drive Cambridge, MA 02142-1347 Tel: 617/253-8909 Fax: 617/253-1330 E-Mail: angrist@mit.edu Adriana D. Kugler University of Houston Department of Economics 204 McElhinney Hall Houston, TX 77204-5019 Tel: 713/743-3832 Fax: 713/743-3798 E-Mail: adkugler@uh.edu 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. KW - cocain KW - columbia KW - geography N1 - The authors are particularly interested in Columbia because of increases in the coca production in rural areas of Columbia and changes on the income level there. They look at how these things affected violence in rural areas (for them, violence is measured by the # of homicides in a region). Findings: They found sharply increased violent death rates in rural areas where they started producing coca. They saw an increase in self-employment income, but not sure if it was from coca production. Increases in come did not lead to a reduction in civil conflict. AU - Angrist, Joshua AU - Kugler, Adriana PY - 2005/March// UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11219 ER -