2025/08/19 by Gustav Agneman · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Corruption and Economic Development #Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance #Political Conflict and Governance
paper · doi:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2025.105115
openalex publication_date 2025/08/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
This study explores how conflict victimization influences civilians’ tendency to comply (or not) with armed actors, a behavioral measure which is elicited through a lab-in-the field experiment in Meta, Colombia. Violence could promote compliance or non-compliance depending on whether a “fear of punishment” or a “taste for retribution” dominates. I find that conflict victimization increases rule violations against the main insurgent group (the FARC-EP ) but has no effect on participants’ tendency to violate rules associated with the Colombian Armed Forces. The link between victimization and non-compliance with the FARC-EP is explained by the more frequent victimization of civilians by the insurgent group, suggesting that violent targeting of civilians fosters resistance rather than submission. I support a causal interpretation through an instrumental variable approach that leverages the distance to a historic front-line as an instrument for victimization.