Work

Sending peace home! The effect of political favoritism on conflict

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: In this paper we investigate and assess the link between political favoritism and domestic conflict. In particular, we compare the difference in the likelihood and intensity of conflict between regions in which citizens reside that belong to identity groups of political leaders and others over time in a global sample for autocracies and non-autocratic regimes. Combining geo-coded conflict data with self-gathered information on the birthplaces and ethnic affiliation of 836 political national leaders and using a two-way fixed effects model with region and country-year fixed effects, we find that regions experience 13.2% fewer casualties while they constitute the birth region of the national leader in autocracies compared to other times. Our empirical evidence on ethnic favoritism is mixed.

Source: Journal of Comparative Economics

DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2025.08.001

Authors: Andreas Kammerlander, Kerstin Unfried

Institutions: University of Freiburg, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine

Language: English

Topic: Political Conflict and Governance

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,510