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Fear and Dreams: Understanding the Non-Institutional sources of Leader Strategy

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  • Maria Angélica Bautista
  • Juan Sebastián Galán
  • James A. Robinson
  • Rafael F. Torres
  • Ragnar Torvik

Abstract

Political leaders make policy choices which are often hard to explain via institutions. We use the behavior of Colombian paramilitary groups as an environment to study non-institutional sources of variation in how public good provision and violence are combined to control populations. We hypothesize that a significant source of variation stems from the social preferences of the paramilitary commanders. Reciprocators adopt a strategy of offering public goods in exchange for support, but also use violence to punish those who do not reciprocate back. Reciprocity, developed via childhood socialization, is a characteristic of rural “peasants”. We develop a model which generates these hypotheses and test them using a unique dataset compiled from transitional justice documents.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Angélica Bautista & Juan Sebastián Galán & James A. Robinson & Rafael F. Torres & Ragnar Torvik, 2024. "Fear and Dreams: Understanding the Non-Institutional sources of Leader Strategy," NBER Working Papers 33011, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33011
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • D9 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics
    • H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods
    • P00 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - General - - - General

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