[go: up one dir, main page]

IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hic/wpaper/167.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Extortion with Protection: Understanding the effect of rebel taxation on civilian welfare in Burundi

Author

Listed:
  • Rachel Sabates-Wheeler

    (Institute of Development Studies)

  • Philip Verwimp

    (Universit� Libre de Bruxelles)

Abstract
Using a panel dataset from Burundi where information on protection payments during the 10 year civil war were collected, we test the relationship between payments, the nature of extraction by the rebels, and welfare outcomes. We ask, does payment to rebels insure against future welfare loss and does the nature of payment matter? Specifically, does the level of institutionalisation of extraction within the rebel governance structure provide a form of insurance for future welfare? No less than 30% of the interviewees made at least one payment. Rebels extract these taxes through one of two routes: an �institutionalised� and regular cash-with-receipt method or an ad hoc and unpredictable labour extraction. Using matching methods we find that payment through the institutionalised route increases household welfare between 16 and 25%. Ad hoc extraction has no effect. We situate our findings in the empirical literatures on contributions to mafia-type organisations and rebel governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Rachel Sabates-Wheeler & Philip Verwimp, 2014. "Extortion with Protection: Understanding the effect of rebel taxation on civilian welfare in Burundi," HiCN Working Papers 167, Households in Conflict Network.
  • Handle: RePEc:hic:wpaper:167
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hicn.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/HiCN-WP-1671.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Halvor Mehlum & Karl Ove Moene & Ragnar Torvik, 2002. "Plunder & Protection Inc," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 39(4), pages 447-459, July.
    2. Emily Oster, 2013. "Unobservable Selection and Coefficient Stability: Theory and Validation," NBER Working Papers 19054, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Konrad, Kai A. & Skaperdas, Stergios, 1997. "Credible threats in extortion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 23-39, May.
    4. Alastair Smith & Federico Varese, 2001. "Payment, Protection And Punishment," Rationality and Society, , vol. 13(3), pages 349-393, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Travers Barclay Child, 2020. "Losing Hearts & Minds: Aid and Ideology," HiCN Working Papers 328, Households in Conflict Network.
    2. Neu, Dean, 2023. "Fragile assets: Street gangs and the extortion business," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    3. Lionel Jeusette & Philip Verwimp, 2017. "Childhood aspirations, occupational outcomes and exposure to violence: Evidence from Burundi," HiCN Working Papers 247, Households in Conflict Network.
    4. Travers B Child, 2023. "Losing Hearts & Minds: Aid and Ideology," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 67(2-3), pages 457-493, February.
    5. Neu, Dean, 2019. "Accounting for extortion," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 50-63.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kløve, Eva & Mehlum, Halvor, 2017. "The Firm and the self-enforcing dynamics of crime and protection," Memorandum 06/2017, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    2. Leeson,Peter T., 2014. "Anarchy Unbound," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107025806, September.
    3. Ernesto Dal Bó & Pedro Dal Bó & Rafael Di Tella, 2007. "Reputation When Threats and Transfers Are Available," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(3), pages 577-598, September.
    4. Sims, Katharine R.E. & Alix-Garcia, Jennifer M., 2017. "Parks versus PES: Evaluating direct and incentive-based land conservation in Mexico," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 8-28.
    5. Antonio Acconcia & Giovanni Immordino & Salvatore Piccolo & Patrick Rey, 2014. "Accomplice Witnesses and Organized Crime: Theory and Evidence from Italy," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 116(4), pages 1116-1159, October.
    6. Alessandro Gavazza & Mattia Nardotto & Tommaso Valletti, 2019. "Internet and Politics: Evidence from U.K. Local Elections and Local Government Policies," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(5), pages 2092-2135.
    7. Diaz-Serrano, Luis & Raya, Josep M., 2014. "Mortgages, immigrants and discrimination: An analysis of the interest rates in Spain," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 22-32.
    8. Panu Poutvaara & Mikael Priks, 2005. "Violent Groups and Police Tactics: Should Tear Gas Make Crime Preventers Cry?," CESifo Working Paper Series 1639, CESifo.
    9. Alberto Alesina & Salvatore Piccolo & Paolo Pinotti, 2019. "Organized Crime, Violence, and Politics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(2), pages 457-499.
    10. Salvatore Piccolo & Giovanni Immordino, 2012. "Optimal Accomplice-Witnesses Regulation under Asymmetric Information," CSEF Working Papers 304, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    11. Bekkouche, Yasmine & Cagé, Julia & Dewitte, Edgard, 2022. "The heterogeneous price of a vote: Evidence from multiparty systems, 1993–2017," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    12. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/453m2eks408pdoss8agfiaocu6 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Dawid, H. & Feichtinger, G. & Novak, A., 2002. "Extortion as an obstacle to economic growth: a dynamic game analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 499-516, September.
    14. Joseph Flavian Gomes, 2020. "The health costs of ethnic distance: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 195-226, June.
    15. Kouroche Vafaï, 1999. "A Theory of Abuse of Authority in Hierarchies," CIRANO Working Papers 99s-07, CIRANO.
    16. Julia Cagé & Valeria Rueda, 2016. "The Long-Term Effects of the Printing Press in Sub-Saharan Africa," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(3), pages 69-99, July.
    17. Ruben Durante & Paolo Pinotti & Andrea Tesei, 2019. "The Political Legacy of Entertainment TV," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(7), pages 2497-2530, July.
    18. E. Somanathan & Randall Bluffstone, 2015. "Biogas: Clean Energy Access with Low-Cost Mitigation of Climate Change," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 62(2), pages 265-277, October.
    19. Benedikt Korf, 2006. "Functions of violence revisited: greed, pride and grievance in Sri Lanka’s civil war," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 6(2), pages 109-122, April.
    20. Steven Blader & Claudine Gartenberg & Andrea Prat, 2020. "The Contingent Effect of Management Practices," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(2), pages 721-749.
    21. Emanuele Ciani & Claudio Deiana, 2018. "No free lunch, buddy: past housing transfers and informal care later in life," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 971-1001, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    extortion; taxation; forced labour; welfare; rebellion; Africa;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hic:wpaper:167. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tilman Brück or the person in charge or the person in charge or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hicn.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.