Economic Shocks and Civil Conflict: The Case of Large Floods

Proceedings of the 2013 Georgia Water Resources Conference, April 10-11, 2013, Athens, Georgia.We investigate the impact of large floods on civil conflict in a sample of 125 countries between 1985 and 2009, employing GDP growth as a potential transmission channel. We instrument for floods and control for potential spatial and temporal dependency of civil conflict. We find that floods increase the probability of conflict incidence through their effect on GDP growth.Sponsored by: Georgia Environmental Protection Division; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service; Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Water Resources Institute; The University of Georgia, Water Resources Faculty.This book was published by Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2152. The views and statements advanced in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent official views or policies of The University of Georgia, the Georgia Water Research Institute as authorized by the Water Research Institutes Authorization Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-307) or the other conference sponsors