War and local collective action in Sierra Leone

Question 1

Aim of Bellows

Answer 1

to assess effects of conflict exposure on individuals’ participation in collective action and aggregate community level economic outcomes following conflict

Question 2

what is the first possible channel of transmission for bellows

Answer 2

trauma associated with violence could change individual beliefs, identities, values, and preferences -> examining the relationship between individual-level victimization and post war behaviors

Question 3

what is the second possible channel of transmission for bellows

Answer 3

conflict could give rise to new institutions or social norms -> examining the relationship between conflict intensity and postwar outcomes at the aggregated chiefdom level

Question 4

estimation strategy for the individual level

Answer 4

• regress measures of collective action on conflict victimization and some individual characteristics
• use chiefdom and year fixed effects to control for regional and temporal variation in unobserved characteristics

Question 5

estimation strategy for the chiefdom level

Answer 5

• regress post war outcomes on conflict victimization using local characteristics as explanatory variables
• use district fixed effects to account for regional variation in unobserved characteristics

Question 6

three conclusions for bellows

Answer 6

• individuals whose households directly experienced war violence are much more active political and civic participants than non-victims
• war victims are significantly more likely to register to vote, attend community meetings, participate in local political and community groups and contribute to local public goods
• this suggests that the increased political mobilization is not due to socioeconomic differences, but rather reflects a direct relationship between victimization and postwar behaviors (related result to blattman)

Question 7

according to bellows, individuals whose households directly experienced more intense war violence are

Answer 7

robustly more likely to attend community meetings, more likely to join local political and community groups, and more likely to vote