What Is a Civil War? A Critical Review of Its Definition and (Econometric) Consequences

We argue that the academic literature, both qualitative and quantitative, has mislabeled most episodes of large-scale violence in Africa as civil wars; these episodes better fit our concept of regional war complexes. Our paper seeks to highlight the fundamental flaws in the conception of civil war i...

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Main Authors:	Gersovitz, Mark, Kriger, Norma
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank 2015
Subjects:	Civil wars combatants postwar reconstruction rehabilitation violence warfare political violence peace mutiny guerrilla drug war observers regional war
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21428

id	okr-10986-21428
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-214282021-04-23T14:04:02Z What Is a Civil War? A Critical Review of Its Definition and (Econometric) Consequences Gersovitz, Mark Kriger, Norma Civil wars combatants postwar reconstruction rehabilitation violence warfare political violence peace mutiny guerrilla drug war observers regional war We argue that the academic literature, both qualitative and quantitative, has mislabeled most episodes of large-scale violence in Africa as civil wars; these episodes better fit our concept of regional war complexes. Our paper seeks to highlight the fundamental flaws in the conception of civil war in the econometric literature and their implications for econometric specification and estimation, problems that this literature is inherently incapable of rectifying. We advocate the comparative study of regional war complexes in Africa based on historical narratives. 2015-02-11T21:53:16Z 2015-02-11T21:53:16Z 2013-08-01 Journal Article World Bank Research Observer 1564-6971 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21428 en_US CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/ World Bank Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Journal Article Africa Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	Civil wars combatants postwar reconstruction rehabilitation violence warfare political violence peace mutiny guerrilla drug war observers regional war
spellingShingle	Civil wars combatants postwar reconstruction rehabilitation violence warfare political violence peace mutiny guerrilla drug war observers regional war Gersovitz, Mark Kriger, Norma What Is a Civil War? A Critical Review of Its Definition and (Econometric) Consequences
geographic_facet	Africa Africa
description	We argue that the academic literature, both qualitative and quantitative, has mislabeled most episodes of large-scale violence in Africa as civil wars; these episodes better fit our concept of regional war complexes. Our paper seeks to highlight the fundamental flaws in the conception of civil war in the econometric literature and their implications for econometric specification and estimation, problems that this literature is inherently incapable of rectifying. We advocate the comparative study of regional war complexes in Africa based on historical narratives.
format	Journal Article
author	Gersovitz, Mark Kriger, Norma
author_facet	Gersovitz, Mark Kriger, Norma
author_sort	Gersovitz, Mark
title	What Is a Civil War? A Critical Review of Its Definition and (Econometric) Consequences
title_short	What Is a Civil War? A Critical Review of Its Definition and (Econometric) Consequences
title_full	What Is a Civil War? A Critical Review of Its Definition and (Econometric) Consequences
title_fullStr	What Is a Civil War? A Critical Review of Its Definition and (Econometric) Consequences
title_full_unstemmed	What Is a Civil War? A Critical Review of Its Definition and (Econometric) Consequences
title_sort	what is a civil war? a critical review of its definition and (econometric) consequences
publisher	Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank
publishDate	2015
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21428
_version_	1764448233885532160

What Is a Civil War? A Critical Review of Its Definition and (Econometric) Consequences

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