Université de Lausanne
Faculté des HEC
Département d'économétrie et d'économie politique

Cahier de recherches économiques du DEEP No. 13.08

Massimo Morelli and Dominic Rohner

Resource Concentration and Civil Wars

May 2013

Abstract
This paper highlights the importance of natural resource concentration and ethnic group regional concentration for ethnic conflict. A new type of bargaining failure due to multiple types of potential conflicts (and hence multiple threat points) is identified. The theory predicts war to be more likely when resource and group concentration are high, and the empirical analysis, both at the country level and at the ethnic group level, confirms the essential role of geographic concentration variables for civil war.

Keywords: Natural Resources; Civil War; Conflict; Secession; Bargaining Failure

JEL classification: C72; D74; Q34