Growing Up in a War: The Shaping of Trust and Identity After Conflict in Peru

This paper evaluates the effect of conflict over the formation of trust and identity. It finds that Peruvian individuals exposed to violent events during their impressionable years trust less government institutions, and feel less identified with their neighbors, while more identified with religious groups. The effect on identification is heterogeneous by the indigenous origin of the individuals. Individuals who own an agricultural plot embedded in a communal arrangement at the local level exhibit even smaller levels of identification with their local neighbours while higher levels of identification with their ethnic group. In line with recent literature, these findings suggest that conflict has a small but persistent effect on the formation of trust and identity, which is a central feature to understand the interaction between culture and institutions, and ultimately to understand the persistent consequences of wars.