St Antony's College

About: St Antony's College is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Politics & Democracy. The organization has 536 authors who have published 881 publications receiving 16826 citations.

On economic causes of civil war

Abstract: We investigate whether civil wars have economic causes. The model is based on utility theory, rebels will conduct a civil war if the perceived benefits outweigh the costs of rebellion. Using probit and tobit models the propositions are tested empirically. Four variables, initial income, ethno-linguistic fractionalisation, the amount of natural resources, and initial population size are significant and strong determinants of the duration and the probability of civil wars. One important finding is that the relationship between civil wars and ethnic diversity is non-monotonic; highly fractionalised societies have no greater risk of experiencing a civil war than homogenous ones.

Vulnerability, seasonality and poverty in Ethiopia

Abstract: Most studies examining the dynamics of welfare have found large fluctuations in consumption over relatively short periods, suggesting substantial short‐run movements in and out of poverty. The consequence is that cross‐section poverty research may not be able to identify the poor. In this study, we explore this short‐run variability further. We use a data set on a panel of 1450 households in different communities in rural Ethiopia, surveyed thrice, over 18 months. On average year‐to‐year poverty is very similar. However, we find high variability in consumption and poverty, over the seasons and year‐by‐year. Econometric analysis suggests that consumption is affected by idiosyncratic and common shocks, including rainfall and household‐specific crop failure, while households respond to seasonal incentives related to changing labour demand and prices. The results imply that a larger number of households are vulnerable to shocks than implied by the standard poverty statistics, while some of the non‐poor in the...

Nationalist Historiography, Patriotic History and the History of the Nation: the Struggle over the Past in Zimbabwe

Abstract: Over the past two or three years there has emerged in Zimbabwe a sustained attempt by the Mugabe regime to propagate what is called ‘patriotic history’. ‘Patriotic history’ is intended to proclaim the continuity of the Zimbabwean revolutionary tradition. It is an attempt to reach out to ‘youth’ over the heads of their parents and teachers, all of whom are said to have forgotten or betrayed revolutionary values. It repudiates academic historiography with its attempts to complicate and question. At the same time, it confronts Western ‘bogus universalism’ which it depicts as a denial of the concrete history of global oppression. ‘Patriotic history’ is propagated at many levels – on television and in the state-controlled press; in youth militia camps; in new school history courses and textbooks; in books written by cabinet ministers; in speeches by Robert Mugabe and in philosophical eulogies and glosses of those speeches by Zimbabwe’s media controller, Tafataona Mahoso. It is a coherent but complex doctrine. ...

Income portfolios in rural Ethiopia and Tanzania: Choices and constraints

Abstract: The article analyses the different income portfolios of households using survey data from rural Ethiopia and rural Tanzania It suggests that the different portfolios held by households cannot be e