Natural Resources and the Economics of Violence Against Civilians

Abstract

We show that armed groups strategically choose the type of violence they perpetrate against civilians when natural resources become more valuable. Combining new data on resources and violence in a panel of cells covering Africa from 1997 to 2018, our findings reveal that an artisanal price shock --a labor-intensive sector-- primarily results in an increase in non-lethal violence against civilians. In contrast, an industrial price shock --a capital-intensive sector-- leads to a rise in lethal violence exclusively. Based on a theoretical discussion, we demonstrate how standard rationales of violence as a taxation strategy may explain these findings. Our findings shed a new light on the resource curse and resource-related conflicts, where violence and appropriation increase the social cost of mineral extraction for civilians.

Keywords: violence against civilians, extortion, artisanal mines, industrial mines, agriculture, resource curse