The causes and consequences of violent conflict
Kerstin Unfried
Doctoral thesis
Date of Examination:
2021-03-26
Date of issue:
2021-04-19
Advisor:
Kis-katos, Krisztina Prof. Dr.
Referee:
Kis-katos, Krisztina Prof. Dr.
Referee:
Ibanez, Marcela Prof. Dr.
Referee:
Fuchs, Andreas Prof. Dr.
Persistent Address: http://hdl.handle.net/21.11130/00-1735-0000-0008-57F7-0
Files in this item
Name:
Doctoral_Thesis_Unfried.pdf
Size:
6,6 MB
Format:
PDF
Abstract
English
This dissertation presents four independent papers that contribute to the understanding of the causes and consequences of violent conflicts. The first two papers identify causes of conflicts whereas the latter two elaborate on the consequences of conflict. More precisely, the first paper investigates the effects of political favoritism on conflict, whereas the second estimates the effects of water scarcity on conflict. With respect to the consequences of conflict, the third paper assesses discrimination towards reintegrating ex-combatants in Colombia. The fourth paper analyzes heterogeneous effects of conflict exposure during childhood on educational attainment. It contextualizes previous case studies. On a methodological level, I use (quasi-)experimental methods to infer causality. This includes high dimensional fixed effects models, instrumental variable approaches and a lab-in-the-field experiment. In three of the four studies, I utilize novel, large-scale and spatial datasets to investigate micro-economic questions at the macro level.
Keywords: violent conflict; water scarcity; political favoritism; education; inter-group contact; discrimination
