Aid Under Fire: How Development Projects Can Increase Civil Conflict

Benjamin Crost

from ARE Update Vol. 14, No. 5, May/June, 2011

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Abstract

Donors and governments are increasingly targeting development aid to conflict-affected areas, in the hope that aid will reduce conflict by “winning the hearts and minds” of the population. But this strategy can backfire. If insurgents expect that development projects will weaken their position in the long run, they will try to derail them,* which can exacerbate conflict.

Keywords

conflict; development; aid; regression discontinuity.

Citation

Benjamin Crost. 2011. "Aid Under Fire: How Development Projects Can Increase Civil Conflict." ARE Update 14(5): 1-4. University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics.
https://giannini.ucop.edu/filer/file/1453327760/16863/