IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v240y2024ics0165176524002556.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mineral price shocks and Native American conflict

Author

Listed:
  • Angel, Marco Del
  • Hess, Gregory D.
  • Weidenmier, Marc D.

Abstract

This study exploits exogenous changes in the world price of gold and silver together with a new geocoded dataset of military engagements to investigate the extent to which Native American conflicts were caused by mining discoveries after the American Civil War. We find that mineral price shocks have a large and significant effect on the incidence of conflict. Our results are robust to various sensitivity checks and are consistent with the narrative evidence from historical reports from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. This is the first paper to establish a causal relationship between mining discoveries and Native American conflict.

Suggested Citation

  • Angel, Marco Del & Hess, Gregory D. & Weidenmier, Marc D., 2024. "Mineral price shocks and Native American conflict," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:240:y:2024:i:c:s0165176524002556
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2024.111771
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176524002556
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2024.111771?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carlos, Ann M. & Feir, Donna L. & Redish, Angela, 2022. "Indigenous Nations and the Development of the U.S. Economy: Land, Resources, and Dispossession," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(2), pages 516-555, June.
    2. Mathieu Couttenier & Pauline Grosjean & Marc Sangnier, 2017. "The Wild West IS Wild: The Homicide Resource Curse," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 558-585.
    3. Sandra Sequeira & Nathan Nunn & Nancy Qian, 2020. "Immigrants and the Making of America," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(1), pages 382-419.
    4. Nicolas Berman & Mathieu Couttenier & Dominic Rohner & Mathias Thoenig, 2017. "This Mine Is Mine! How Minerals Fuel Conflicts in Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1564-1610, June.
    5. Clay, Karen & Jones, Randall, 2008. "Migrating to Riches? Evidence from the California Gold Rush," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(4), pages 997-1027, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Axbard, Sebastian & Benshaul-Tolonen, Anja & Poulsen, Jonas, 2021. "Natural resource wealth and crime: The role of international price shocks and public policy," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    2. Nicolas Berman & Mathieu Couttenier & Dominic Rohner & Mathias Thoenig, 2017. "This Mine Is Mine! How Minerals Fuel Conflicts in Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1564-1610, June.
    3. Baten, Jörg & Baier, Jessica, 2017. "Silver, Murder, and Institutions: Did the “Curse of Resources†impact on Homicide Rates? Global evidence since 1890," CEPR Discussion Papers 12397, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Samuel Bazzi & Martin Fiszbein & Mesay Gebresilasse, 2020. "Frontier Culture: The Roots and Persistence of “Rugged Individualism” in the United States," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(6), pages 2329-2368, November.
    5. Cust,James Frederick & Mensah,Justice Tei, 2020. "Natural Resource Discoveries, Citizen Expectations and Household Decisions," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9372, The World Bank.
    6. Jaimes, Richard & Gerlagh, Reyer, 2020. "Resource-richness and economic growth in contemporary U.S," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    7. Brodeur, Abel & Haddad, Joanne, 2021. "Institutions, attitudes and LGBT: Evidence from the gold rush," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 92-110.
    8. Mathieu Couttenier & Pauline Grosjean & Marc Sangnier, 2017. "The Wild West IS Wild: The Homicide Resource Curse," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 558-585.
    9. Camille Laville, 2018. "The econometrical causal analysis of internal conflicts: The evolutions of a growing literature [L’analyse économétrique des conflits internes par l’approche causale : les évolutions d’une littérat," Working Papers hal-01940461, HAL.
    10. Aguilar-Gomez, Sandra & Benshaul-Tolonen, Anja, 2023. "The evolution and persistence of women's roles: Evidence from the Gold Rush," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 364-381.
    11. Nguyen, Minh-Hoang, 2021. "Resource curse - Wikipedia," OSF Preprints 36uyb, Center for Open Science.
    12. Camille Laville, 2018. "The econometrical causal analysis of internal conflicts: The evolutions of a growing literature [L’analyse économétrique des conflits internes par l’approche causale : les évolutions d’une littérat," CERDI Working papers hal-01940461, HAL.
    13. Raphael Boulat, 2024. "Working Paper: Conflicts and the New Scramble for African Resources -- A Shift-Share Approach," Papers 2408.08923, arXiv.org.
    14. Elena Esposito & Scott F. Abramson, 2021. "The European coal curse," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 77-112, March.
    15. He, Xiaoyu & Mei, Yixin, 2024. "Can arms breed peace? The consequence of arms imports from the US on civil wars," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 207-229.
    16. Massimo Morelli & Dominic Rohner, 2023. "Natural resources and conflict: The crucial role of power mismatch and geographic asymmetries," Working Papers 698, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    17. De Haas, Ralph & Poelhekke, Steven, 2019. "Mining matters: Natural resource extraction and firm-level constraints," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 109-124.
    18. Mahdi FAWAZ, 2020. "Ressources naturelles et guerres civiles au Moyen-Orient," Bordeaux Economics Working Papers 2020-09, Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE).
    19. Lewkowicz, Jacek & Woźniak, Michał & Wrzesiński, Michał, 2022. "COVID-19 and erosion of democracy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    20. Jørgen Juel Andersen & Frode Martin Nordvik & Andrea Tesei, 2022. "Oil Price Shocks and Conflict Escalation: Onshore versus Offshore," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 66(2), pages 327-356, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:240:y:2024:i:c:s0165176524002556. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.