Djankov, SimeonReynal-Querol, Marta2012-06-072012-06-072007-06https://hdl.handle.net/10986/7416The dominant hypothesis in the literature that studies conflict is that poverty is the main cause of civil wars. The authors instead analyze the effect of institutions on civil war, controlling for income per capita. In their set up, institutions are endogenous and colonial origins affect civil wars through their legacy on institutions. Their results indicate that institutions, proxied by the protection of property rights, rule of law and the efficiency of the legal system, are a fundamental cause of civil war. In particular, an improvement in institutions from the median value in the sample to the 75th percentile is associated with a 38 percentage points' reduction in the incidence of civil wars. Moreover, once institutions are included as explaining civil wars, income does not have any effect on civil war, either directly or indirectly.CC BY 3.0 IGOABSOLUTE VALUEARMED CONFLICTCIVIL CONFLICTCIVIL WARCIVIL WARSCONFLICT RESOLUTIONCOURTSDEFENSEDEMOCRACYDEPENDENT VARIABLEDEVELOPMENT POLICYDIFFERENCES IN INCOMEDISPUTESECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTECONOMIC GROWTHECONOMIC PERFORMANCEECONOMIC REVIEWECONOMIC SHOCKSECONOMIC STAGNATIONECONOMIC THEORYEMPIRICAL LITERATUREEMPIRICAL RESULTSEMPIRICAL STUDIESENDOGENOUS VARIABLEENDOGENOUS VARIABLESEPIDEMICSEXOGENOUS VARIABLEEXPLANATORY POWEREXPLANATORY VARIABLEEXPLANATORY VARIABLESEXPROPRIATIONGAMBIAINCOMEINCOME DISTRIBUTIONINCOME TAXATIONINCOME VARIABLESINVESTIGATIONLAND REFORMLARGE POPULATIONLARGE POPULATIONSMILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALSMONETARY ECONOMICSMORTALITYMORTALITY RATESNATURAL RESOURCESNEGATIVE RELATIONSHIP0 HYPOTHESISOPPORTUNITY COSTPEACEPEACE RESEARCHPER CAPITA INCOMEPOLICY RESEARCHPOLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPERPOLITICAL CHANGEPOLITICAL ECONOMYPOLITICAL INSTITUTIONSPOLITICAL SCIENCEPOLITICAL SYSTEMSPOORPOOR COUNTRIESPOSITIVE EFFECTPOSITIVE RELATIONSHIPPOVERTY INCREASESPRIVATE AGENTSPROGRESSPROPERTY RIGHTSREGIONAL SAMPLESREGRESSION ANALYSISRULE OF LAWSENSITIVITY ANALYSISSIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCESSIGNIFICANT EFFECTTAXATIONWARSWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-4254