Year: 2013
Type: report
Abstract: We establish a theoretical as well as empirical framework to assess the role of resource endowments and their geographic location for inter-State conflict.The main predictions of the theory are that conflict tends to be more likely when at least one country has natural resources; when the resources in the resource-endowed country are closer to the border; and, in the case where both countries have natural resources, when the resources are located asymmetrically vis-a-vis the border.We test these predictions on a novel dataset featuring oilfield distances from bilateral borders.The empirical analysis shows that the presence and location of oil are significant and quantitatively important predictors of inter-State conflicts after WW2.
DOI: 10.3386/w18978
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Award: G415511948
OpenAlex ID: W2107255013