Key Findings of Collier

1
Key Findings of Collier Hoeffler

• On Economic Causes of Civil War (1998)
• Civil war is overwhelmingly a phenomenon of low
  income countries.
• Possessing natural resources made things worse,
  unless there were plenty of them.
• Countries with larger populations have higher
  risks of war and these wars last longer greater
  attraction of secession.
• Hence, it is not ethno-linguistic
  fractionalisation which is damaging to societies
  but that degree of fractionalisation which most
  facilitates rebel coordination

2
Key Findings of Collier Hoeffler

• Greed and Grievance in Civil War (2001)
• All three grievance models have very low
  explanatory power
• Opportunity as an explanation of conflict risk is
  consistent with the economic interpretation of
  rebellion as greed-motivated
• Primary commodity exports
• Foregone earnings
• Cost of conflict-specific capital
• Low density, low urbanisation
• Large diaspora
• Other significant variables
• Ethnic dominance
• Democracy
• Time heals

3
Key Revisions by Ballentine

• Varied impact of economic factors on
• Incidence of conflicts
• Duration of conflicts
• Intensity of conflicts
• Economic factors matter, but quite possibly in
  different ways and to differing degrees ?
  alternative explanations for Collier and
  Hoefflers findings