Economic Aspects of Genocides, Other Mass Atrocities, and Their Prevention

by Charles H. Anderton (Editor), Jurgen Brauer (Editor)

Overview

Alongside other types of mass atrocities, genocide has received extensive scholarly, policy, and practitioner attention. Missing, however, is the contribution of economists to better understand and prevent such crimes. This edited collection by 41 accomplished scholars examines economic aspects of genocides, other mass atrocities, and their prevention. Chapters include numerous case studies (e.g., California's Yana people, Australia's Aborigines peoples, Stalin's killing of Ukrainians, Belarus, the Holocaust, Rwanda, DR Congo, Indonesia, Pakistan, Colombia, Mexico's drug wars, and the targeting of suspects during the Vietnam war), probing literature reviews, and completely novel work based on extraordinary country-specific datasets. Also included are chapters on the demographic, gendered, and economic class nature of genocide. Replete with research- and policy-relevant findings, new insights are derived from behavioral economics, law and economics, political economy, macroeconomic modeling, microeconomics, development economics, industrial organization, identity economics, and other fields. Analytical approaches include constrained optimization theory, game theory, and sophisticated statistical work in data-mining, econometrics, and forecasting. A foremost finding of the book concerns atrocity architects' purposeful, strategic use of violence, often manipulating nonrational proclivities among ordinary people to sway their participation in mass murder. Relatively understudied in the literature, the book also analyzes the options of victims before, during, and after mass violence. Further, the book shows how well-intended prevention efforts can backfire and increase violence, how wrong post-genocide design can entrench vested interests to reinforce exclusion of vulnerable peoples, and how businesses can become complicit in genocide. In addition to the necessity of healthy opportunities in employment, education, and key sectors in prevention work, the book shows why new genocide prevention laws and institutions must be based on reformulated incentives that consider insights from law and economics, behavioral economics, and collective action economics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190606992
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/09/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	656
File size:	38 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Dr. Charles H. Anderton is Professor of Economics and the W. Arthur Garrity Sr. Professor in Human Nature, Ethics and Society at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, where he has taught since 1986. His course offerings include the economics of war and peace and genocide and mass killing: perspectives from the social sciences. His research on war and peace has been published in a variety of journals and edited volumes in economics, international relations, and related fields. Dr. Jurgen Brauer is Professor of Economics, Hull College of Business, Augusta University, Augusta, GA, and Visiting Professor of Economics, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. Specializing in defense and peace economics, he is co-founder and co-editor of The Economics of Peace and Security Journal.

Table of Contents

PART I - ECONOMICS AND MASS ATROCITIES: OVERVIEW Chapter 1: On the Economics of Genocides, Other Mass Atrocities, and Their Prevention Charles H. Anderton and Jurgen Brauer Chapter 2: "A Crime Without A Name": Defining Genocide and Mass Atrocity James E. Waller Chapter 3: Datasets and Trends of Genocides, Mass Killings, and Other Civilian Atrocities Charles H. Anderton Chapter 4: The Demography of Genocide Tadeusz Kugler Chapter 5: The Macroeconomic Toll of Genocide and the Sources of Economic Development Dimitrios Soudis, Robert Inklaar, and Robbert Maseland PART II: ECONOMICS AND MASS ATROCITIES: THEORETICAL APPROACHES AND REVIEWS OF EMPIRICAL LITERATURE Chapter 6: Genocide and Mass Killing Risk and Prevention: Perspectives from Constrained Optimization Models Charles H. Anderton and Jurgen Brauer Chapter 7: Incentives and Constraints for Mass Killings: A Game-Theoretic Approach Joan Esteban, Massimo Morelli, and Dominic Rohner Chapter 8: Genocide: From Social Structure to Political Conduct Néstor Duch-Brown and Antonio Fonfría Chapter 9: The Microeconomic Causes and Consequences of Genocides and Mass Atrocities Patricia Justino Chapter 10: Development and the Risk of Mass Atrocities: An Assessment of the Empirical Literature Anke Hoeffler Chapter 11: Who Stays and Who Leaves During Mass Atrocities? Ana María Ibáñez and Andrés Moya Chapter 12: Media Persuasion, Ethnic Hatred, and Mass Violence: A Brief Overview of Recent Advances Maria Petrova and David Yanagizawa-Drott PART III - ECONOMICS AND MASS ATROCITIES: CASE STUDIES I Chapter 13: "For Being Aboriginal" - Economic Perspectives on Pre-Holocaust Genocides Jurgen Brauer and Raul Caruso Chapter 14: Identity and Incentives: An Economic Interpretation of the Holocaust Raul Caruso Chapter 15: The Economics of Genocide in Rwanda Willa Friedman Chapter 16: Peace and the Killing: Compatible Logics in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Zoë Marriage Chapter 17: Gender and the Genocidal Economy Elisa von Joeden-Forgey PART IV - ECONOMICS AND MASS ATROCITIES: CASE STUDIES II Chapter 18: On the Logistics of Violence: Evidence from Stalin's Great Terror, Nazi-Occupied Belarus, and Modern African Civil Wars Yuri M. Zhukov Chapter 19: Strategic Atrocities: Civilians under Crossfire - Theory and Evidence from Colombia Juan F. Vargas Chapter 20: From Pax Narcótica to Guerra Pública: Explaining Civilian Violence in Mexico's Illicit Drug Wars Neil T.N. Ferguson, Maren M. Michaelsen, and Topher L. McDougal Chapter 21: Long-Term Economic Development in the Presence of an Episode of Mass Killing: The Case of Indonesia, 1965-1966 S. Mansoob Murshed and Mohammad Zulfan Tadjoeddin Chapter 22: Economic Foundations of Religious Killings and Genocide with Special Reference to Pakistan, 1978-2012 Partha Gangopadhyay Chapter 23: Understanding Civil War Violence through Military Intelligence: Mining Suspects' Records from the Vietnam War Rex W. Douglass PART V - ECONOMICS AND MASS ATROCITIES: TOWARD PREDICTION AND PREVENTION Chapter 24: Economic Risk Factors and Predictive Modeling of Genocide and Mass Killing Charles R. Butcher and Benjamin E. Goldsmith Chapter 25: Business in Genocide: Understanding and Avoiding Complicity Nora M. Stel and Wim Naudé Chapter 26: Valuing Lives You Might Save: Understanding Psychic Numbing in the Face of Genocide Paul Slovic, Daniel Västfjäll, Robin Gregory, and Kimberly G. Olson Chapter 27: Genocides and Other Mass Atrocities: A Law and Economics Approach Jurgen Brauer, Charles H. Anderton, and David Schap Chapter 28: Local and National Democracy in Political Reconstruction Roger B. Myerson

Editorial Reviews

"The editors do an excellent job of locating materials regarding certain painful spheres in one place for easier access to readings, reflections, and directions for the future. This book is a must read for all who seek to better understand these complex dynamics and work toward solutions...Recommended."—CHOICE

"Besides writing, jointly or separately, several keystone chapters that provide perspective and coherence to the whole collection, the editors clearly worked hard on planning the overall design and reviewing the individual papers to minimize straying."—Journal of Economic Literature

"The contributors interweave the human experiences of mass atrocities, genocides, and other aspects of crime with economic theory. The presentation is systematically comprehensive and engages a great mass of data, critical thinking, and great reflections. The editors do an excellent job of locating materials regarding certain painful spheres in one place for easier access to readings, reflections, and directions for the future. This book is a must read for all who seek to better understand these complex dynamics and work toward solutions."
— CHOICE

"This volume builds a useful bridge between the worlds of mass atrocities and economic theory by presenting a comprehensive, systematic and easily-digestible analysis of key drivers, sustainers and consequences. Economic Aspects of Genocides, Other Mass Atrocities, and Their Prevention unveils six dimensions of interactivity (namely: choice, economic conditions, real economy, wealth appropriation, business organization and socio-economic fundamentals), which are expertly woven throughout the publication. These pillars are both illuminating and instructive for scholars and practitioners, who are continually challenged to grapple with the complex theoretical and empirical underpinnings of the economics-mass atrocities nexus, while also gleaning keen policy insights for prevention and post-disaster reconstruction. This book is a must-read for all who are seeking to better understand these complex dynamics and work towards solutions that are effective and enduring!"

From the Publisher