Poverty, Social Divisions and Conflict in Nepal." Unpublished working paper

We conduct an econometric analysis of the economic and social factors that contributed to the spread of violent conflict in Nepal. We find that conflict intensity is significantly higher in places with greater poverty and lower levels of economic development. Violence is higher in locations that favor insurgents, such as mountains and forests. We find weaker evidence that caste divisions or linguistic diversity in society are correlated with the intensity of civil conflict