Poverty and Violent Conflict: A Micro-Level Perspective on the Causes and Duration of Warfare

By Patricia Justino. 2009

348 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article discusses how endogenous mechanisms linking processes of violent conflict and the economic well-being of individuals and households in combat areas provide valuable micro foundations to the ongoing debate on the causes and duration of armed conflict. Notably, the endogenous relationship between conflict processes and household economic status leads to the emergence of symbiotic associations between armed groups and households living in areas they control that affect substantially the probability of a conflict starting and its effectiveness thereafter. Households in conflict areas draw on local armed groups to protect their economic status when anticipating violence and during the conflict, while armed groups make use of different levels of (either reluctant or voluntary) participation, support and cooperation from local populations to advance their strategic objectives at the onset and throughout the conflict. The level of household participation at the start and during the conflict is a function of two interdependent variables, namely household vulnerability to poverty and household vulnerability to violence. The poorer the household is at the start of the conflict, the higher is the probability of the household participating and supporting an armed group. The higher the risk of violence, the higher is the probability of the household participating and supporting armed groups. The interaction between these two variables varies with the conflict itself and is defined by the direct and indirect effects of conflict-induced violence on the economic behaviour and decisions of households in combat areas.

Subfields: Safety Research, Sociology and Political Science, Soil Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a37b3780d3ea4d726046a0f06779adb7d27d2f76

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Safety Research

1. Tilman Brück
2. Philip Verwimp
3. Patricia Justino

In Sociology and Political Science

1. Patricia Justino
2. Tilman Brück
3. Philip Verwimp

In Soil Science

1. Tilman Brück
2. Patricia Justino
3. Philip Verwimp

Citations in the corpus

• War and poverty (2010, positive): “…and households living in areas of violent conflict adopt also a plethora of strategies to survive that include some variation on risk-coping strategies listed above, but may also include fighting, looting, support for armed groups and participation in illegal activities (see Justino 2009).”
• The microeconomics of violent conflict (2019, background): “This is largely because violent shocks often lead to a trade-off between maximizing welfare and maximizing physical security (Justino, 2009).”
• Violent conflict and human capital accumulation (2011, positive): “Although these effects may average out at the macroeconomic level, they may contribute to the emergence of poverty traps amongst specific population groups affected by violence (Justino 2009 2010).”