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Title: The Wild West is Wild: The Homicide Resource Curse

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2013

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Abstract: We uncover interpersonal violence as a dimension and a mechanism of the resource curse. We rely on a historical natural experiment in the United States, in which mineral discoveries occurred at various stages of governmental territorial expansion. "Early" mineral discoveries, before full-fledge rule of law is in place in a county, are associated with higher levels of interpersonal violence, historically and today. The persistence of this homicide resource curse is partly explained by the low quality of -subsequent- judicial institutions. The speci city of our results to violent crime also suggests that a private order of property rights did emerge on the frontier, but that it was enforced by high levels of interpersonal violence. The results are robust to state-speci c e ffects, to comparing only neighboring counties, and to comparing only discoveries within short time intervals.

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Authors: Grosjean, Pauline; Couttenier, Mathieu; Sangnier, Marc

Publisher: University of Lausanne

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Crime and Deviance

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