Mass Atrocities and Their Prevention

Abstract

Counting conservatively, data show about 100 million mass atrocity-related deaths since 1900. A distinct empirical phenomenon, mass atrocities are events of enormous scale, severity, and brutality, occur in wartime and in peacetime, are geographically widespread, occur with surprising frequency, under various systems of governance, and can be long-lasting in their effects on economic and human development, wellbeing, and wealth, more so when nonfatal physical injuries and mental trauma also are considered. As such, mass atrocities are a major economic concern. Given the multidisciplinary nature of the subject matter, the pertinent conceptual, theoretical, and empirical literatures are voluminous and widely dispersed, and have not been synthesized before from an economics point of view. We address two gaps: a “mass atrocities gap” in the economics literature and an “economics gap” in mass atrocities scholarship. Our goals are, first, to survey and synthesize for economists a broad sweep of literatures on which to base further work in this field and, second, for both economists and noneconomists to learn how economic inquiry contributes to understanding the causes and conduct of mass atrocities and, possibly, to their mitigation and prevention. In drawing on standard, behavioral, identity, social network, and complex systems economics, we find that the big puzzles of the “how” and “why” of mass atrocities, and mass participation therein, are being well addressed. While new research on such topics will be valuable, work should also progress to develop improved prevention approaches. (JEL D72, D74, K38, N40, Z13)

Modelling behaviour in intergroup conflicts: a review of microeconomic approaches

“…domain references general [9][10][11][12] group-based social preferences [13][14][15][16][17] identity choice [18][19][20][21][22] contest models [23][24][25][26][27][28][29] other modelling approaches [30][31][32][33][34] royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rstb Phil. Trans.…”

Mediation, Military, and Money: The Promises and Pitfalls of Outside Interventions to End Armed Conflicts

“…While the aforementioned casualty counts refer to two-sided conflict, one may want to add to these numbers the human lives lost in one-sided conflict, where armed troops turn their weapons against defenseless civilians. Anderton and Brauer (2021) estimate 100 million mass atrocityrelated deaths since 1900. 3 One way of estimating how particular firms can benefit (or are expected to benefit) from conflict is to focus on abnormal stock market returns (see La Ferrara, 2007, 2010).…”

“…Blattman and Miguel, 2010) or focus on very specific aspects of the economics literature on conflict (see e.g. Konrad, 2009, on contest models, Rohner, 2018, 2018b, on the resource curse and the foreign aid community, respectively, Anderton andBrauer, 2021, on mass atrocities, and war traps). In a nutshell, the current contribution is the only recent paper that i) integrates both the literatures in economics and in political science, and that ii) spans over the whole variety of possible political or economic types of third-party interventions (labelled mediation, military and money).…”

"Crime and Punishment"? How Russian Banks Anticipated and Dealt with Global Financial Sanctions

“…In this chapter, we often refer to recent work in the literature on the economics of conflict. For recent literature surveys, see, for example,Anderton and Brauer (2021) and Rohner (2022).…”