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Fighting for Not-So-Religious Souls: The Role of Religious Competition in Secular Conflicts

Galindo-Silva, Hector, Tchuente, Guy (2021) Fighting for Not-So-Religious Souls: The Role of Religious Competition in Secular Conflicts. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 191 . pp. 127-152. ISSN 0167-2681. (doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2021.08.027) (KAR id:84481)

Abstract

Many countries embroiled in non-religious civil conflicts have experienced a dramatic increase in religious competition in recent years. This study examines whether increasing competition between religions affects violence in non-religious conflicts. The study focuses on Colombia, a deeply Catholic country that has suffered one of the world's longest-running internal conflicts and, in the last few decades, has witnessed an intense increase in religious competition between the Catholic Church and new non-Catholic churches. The estimation of a dynamic treatment effect model shows that establishing the first non-Catholic church in a municipality substantially increases the probability of an attack by a left-wing guerrilla group. Further analysis suggests that the increase in guerrilla attacks is associated with the expectation among guerrilla groups that their membership will decline as a consequence of more intense competition with religious groups for followers.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.jebo.2021.08.027
Uncontrolled keywords: Marketplace for religion, Armed conflict
Subjects: H Social Sciences
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Economics
Depositing User: Guy Tchuente Nguembu
Date Deposited: 26 Nov 2020 19:55 UTC
Last Modified: 19 Mar 2023 00:00 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/84481 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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