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Land grabbing and ethnic conflict

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  • Krieger, Tim
  • Meierrieks, Daniel

Abstract

We study the effect of large-scale land acquisitions on the risk of ethnic tensions for a sample of 133 countries for the 2000-2012 period. Running a series of fractional response models, we find that more land grabbing activity is associated with a higher risk of ethnic tensions, indicating that the negative effects of land deals outweigh their potential benefits. In addition to that, we also show that democratic institutions may moderate the relationship between land deals and ethnic tensions. That is, non-democratic countries face a substantially higher risk of ethnic tensions as the level of large-scale land acquisitions increases; by contrast, strongly democratic countries tend to see lower ethnic tension risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Krieger, Tim & Meierrieks, Daniel, 2016. "Land grabbing and ethnic conflict," Discussion Paper Series 2016-04, University of Freiburg, Wilfried Guth Endowed Chair for Constitutional Political Economy and Competition Policy.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:wgspdp:201604
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Malte F. Dold, 2018. "Back to Buchanan? Explorations of welfare and subjectivism in behavioral economics," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 160-178, April.
    2. Dold, Malte & Krieger, Tim, 2017. "Competition or conflict? Beyond traditional ordo-liberalism," Discussion Paper Series 2017-02, University of Freiburg, Wilfried Guth Endowed Chair for Constitutional Political Economy and Competition Policy.
    3. Krieger, Tim & Meierrieks, Daniel, 2019. "The economic consequences of terrorism for the European Union," Discussion Paper Series 2019-02, University of Freiburg, Wilfried Guth Endowed Chair for Constitutional Political Economy and Competition Policy.
    4. De Juan, Alexander & Hoffmann, Lisa & Lay, Jann, 2022. "Large-scale agricultural investments, employment opportunities and communal conflict," OSF Preprints j5vmh, Center for Open Science.
    5. Gianpaolo Rossini, 2017. "Land Grabbing: Last Ditch Effort of Colonialism? A Survey of a Few Contributions and a Couple of Suggestions," Homo Oeconomicus: Journal of Behavioral and Institutional Economics, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 79-96, April.
    6. de Juan, Alexander & Geissel, Daniel & Lay, Jann & Lohmann, Rebecca, 2022. "Large-scale land deals and social conflict: Evidence and policy implications," GIGA Working Papers 328, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    large-scale land acquisitions; land grabbing; conflict; ethnic tensions; democratic accountability; weak institutions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements
    • F63 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Economic Development
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth
    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment

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