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The Wild West is Wild: The Homicide Resource Curse

Author

Listed:
  • Mathieu Couttenier

    (University of Lausanne.)

  • Pauline Grosjean

    (School of Economics, Australian School of Business, the University of New South Wales)

  • Marc Sangnier

    (Aix-Marseille University, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, CNRS & EHESS.)

Abstract

We uncover interpersonal violence as a dimension and a mechanism of the re- source curse. We rely on a historical natural experiment in the United States, in which mineral discoveries occurred at various stages of governmental territorial ex- pansion. “Early” mineral discoveries, before full-fledged rule of law is in place in a county, are associated with higher levels of interpersonal violence, both historically and today. The persistence of this homicide resource curse is partly explained by the low quality of (subsequent) judicial institutions. The specificity of our results to violent crime also suggests that a private order of property rights did emerge on the frontier, but that it was enforced through high levels of interpersonal violence. The results are robust to state-specific effects, to comparing only neighboring counties, and to comparing only discoveries within short time intervals of one another.

Suggested Citation

  • Mathieu Couttenier & Pauline Grosjean & Marc Sangnier, 2014. "The Wild West is Wild: The Homicide Resource Curse," Discussion Papers 2014-12, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    • Handle: RePEc:swe:wpaper:2014-12
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    File URL: http://research.economics.unsw.edu.au/RePEc/papers/2014-12.pdf
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Homicide; Institutions; Resource curse; United States;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • N51 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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