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Oil Wealth, Ethno‐Religious‐Linguistic Fractionalization and Civil Wars in Africa: Cross‐Country Evidence
Author(s) -
Anyanwu John C.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
african development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.654
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1467-8268
pISSN - 1017-6772
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8268.12077
Subject(s) - fractionalization , ethnic group , spanish civil war , per capita , per capita income , development economics , democracy , economics , political science , demographic economics , geography , population , sociology , demography , politics , law
We empirically examine the effect of oil wealth and ethno‐religious‐linguistic fractionalization on civil war prevalence in Africa, by using three different estimation strategies and alternative measures of societal diversity. We show that oil wealth and the three distributional measures of ethnic fractionalization, religious fractionalization and linguistic fractionalization are significant correlates of civil war in Africa. These effects persist as we use an alternative measure of the prevalence of civil war. Thus, while oil wealthy, ethnically and linguistically fractionalized countries are more likely to experience civil violence, religiously fractionalized ones are less likely to experience significant civil violence in the Continent. We also find that countries with large population size, rough (mountainous) terrain and coup‐prone are at greater risk for civil war than those that are more democratic with high per capita income and economic growth.