Political Science and Political Economy Research Seminar
The Origins and Consequences of Territorial Control
Austin Wright (Chicago)
Tuesday 12 November 2024 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
Territorial control is central to the political economy of state formation during war. Which armed actor controls or contests a given region can have profound consequences for subsequent economic and political development, especially in weakly institutionalized settings. Yet existing measures of control and contestation are often lacking in construct validity, coverage, or availability. This project addresses this gap in three parts. First, I develop a novel measurement strategy that builds on a simple intuition: armed actors routinely deny or disrupt the ability of agents of the state to gather sensitive information. Leveraging a dataset built from enumerator logs tracking millions of survey collection events in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2020, I cross-validate the measurement concept against alternative classified and semi-public measures and existing theories of violence across zones of control. Second, I exploit within-district cross-seasonal variation in potential revenue from the opium trade to study how local economic shocks enhance the capacity of the Taliban to consolidate authority. Third, I study the impact of changes in local control on illicit activities and public service provision by the government. This project clarifies how resource endowment shocks can disrupt or reinforce political authority, helping us to better understand the economic origins of territorial control.
The Political Science and Political Economy (PSPE) research group at the LSE brings together faculty and PhD students who do quantitative and/or formal research on political institutions, political behaviour, public policy, and political economy.
The PSPE Research Seminar provides a venue for researchers (mostly from outside of the LSE) to present their work.
These seminars are held on Tuesdays in term time at 14.00-15.30, both ONLINE AND IN PERSON in room SAL 3.05, unless specified otherwise.
Seminar coordinators: Aliz Toth, Carl Muller Crepon and Nirvikar Jassal
Contact gov.comms@lse.ac.uk to be added to the mailing list and to recieve the zoom link.
For further information please contact Maddie Giles: gov.comms@lse.ac.uk.