Browsing by Autor "Stergios Skaperdas"

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Socio-Political Conflict and Economic Performance in Bolivia
(RELX Group (Netherlands), 2008) José Luis Evia; Roberto Laserna; Stergios Skaperdas
Sociopolitical Conflict and Economic Performance in Bolivia
(The MIT Press, 2014) José Luis Evia; Roberto Laserna; Stergios Skaperdas
Abstract This chapter discusses the effect of social conflict on economic performance in Bolivia. It first describes the landscape of social and political conflicts in Bolivia, the main organizations and actors, and how these have evolved in the past few decades. The chapter then examines how appropriative conflict, governance, and economic performance interact, and argues that conflict in Bolivia affects economic performance in a number of distinct ways. First, the different types of conflict have direct economic costs that take away resources from production, consumption, and investment. Second, conflict changes the incentives that would normally be expected in a frictionless world of markets so that production, investment, and innovation are distorted in ways that significantly impinge on economic performance. Third, conflict and the levels of resultant economic activity affect investments in "institutions," "governance," or "property rights," which in turn affect future levels of conflict and economic performance.
Sociopolitical Conflict and Economic Performance in Bolivia
(The MIT Press, 2014) José Luis Evia; Roberto Laserna; Stergios Skaperdas
We examine how socio-political conflict in Bolivia has affected its economic performance since the 1970s.Such conflict includes strikes, demonstrations, road blockades, and conventional rent-seeking.Since conflict has costs, it diverts resources away from production, tends to reduce investment and could therefore reduce economic growth.We first review the characteristics of conflict in Bolivia using a unique data set.We then provide estimates of the direct costs of conflict and examine the relationship with economic performance using hypotheses derived from a simple model.In particular, we make a distinction between economic growth that is due to external factors -like changes in income due to movements in the terms of trade -and economic growth that is due to productive investment.Growth due to external factors tends to be positively related to conflict, whereas growth due to productive investment should be negatively related to conflict.Finally, we discuss how levels of conflict, economic performance, and governance might be related in Bolivia's recent history.