displaced state authorities and promoted the creation of self-governing institutions that embodied local values and openly … state. Our results suggest that community institutions in guerrilla-controlled areas led to enduring land fragmentation and … disengagement with the government. We argue that when non-state actors develop alternative governance institutions, they can lead to …

negatively related to civil conflict in sub-Saharan Africa. In the reduced form regression they find that higher rainfall is … associated with less conflict. Ciccone (2010) claims that this conclusion is 'erroneous' and argues that higher rainfall levels … are actually linked to more conflict. In this paper we show that the results in Ciccone's paper are based on incorrect …

opportunities depends on the nature of institutions. When institutions are strong, new opportunities or windfalls can have positive … effects. But when institutions are weak they can have negative effects. We present a simple model to illustrate how … comparative statics are conditional on the nature of institutions and show how this perspective helps to unify a large number of …

We propose a model of cycles of distrust and conflict. Overlapping generations of agents from two groups sequentially … a sequence of bad actions originated. Assuming that both sides are not extremists, spirals of distrust and conflict get … this mechanism can be useful in interpreting cycles of ethnic conflict and international war, and how it also emerges in …