Political Economy Research Seminar
Fear and Dreams: Social origins of paramilitary behavior in Colombia
Jim Robinson (University of Chicago)
Tuesday 28 March 2023 14:00 - 15:30
Many of our seminars and public events this year will continue as in person or as hybrid (online and in person) events. Please check our website listings and Twitter feed @STICERD_LSE for updates.
Unless otherwise specified, in-person seminars are open to the public. Please ensure you have informed the event contact as early as possible.
Those unable to join the seminars in-person are welcome to participate via zoom if the event is hybrid.
About this event
We study variation in the governing strategies adopted by paramilitary fronts in Colombia between 2000 and 2006. We hypothesize that the social background of the front commanders was a prime determinant of the variation, specifically in the combinations of violence (fear) and public goods (dreams). In particular, campesinos (peasant) were more likely to have developed preferences characterized by reciprocity. We develop a model of reciprocity which predicts that more reciprocal commanders should provide both more public goods and more violence. The model also implies that such fronts should endure longer. Using a new dataset constructed from court records, transitional Justice documents and the media and using a regression discontinuity design we find support for all the predictions.
The Political Economy Research Seminar is jointly organised by the Departments of Economics, of Government, and of Management, with financial support from STICERD.
It brings together scholars across multiple departments at the LSE and from nearby universities. The series consists of talks by external and internal faculty presenting theoretical or empirical papers on a wide range of topics associated with political economy.
These seminars are held on Tuesdays in term time at 14.00-15.30, in room MAR 6.33, unless specified otherwise.
Seminar coordinators: Timothy Besley (Economics), Tak-Huen Chau (Government), Stephane Wolton (Government), Noam Yuchtman (Management)
Contact gov.comms@lse.ac.uk to be added to the mailing list or for further information.