Discrimination in post-conflict settings: Experimental evidence from Colombia
Kerstin Unfried, Marcela Ibanez and Lina Maria Restrepo-PlazaAfter a civil war, community support for the reintegration of ex-combatants is crucial for peace-building. Using a crowdfunding campaign to promote trainees’ business ideas, we investigate whether university students discriminate against ex-combatants. Our results show no discrimination against ex-combatants in terms of donations compared with other trainees, but there is a substantial degree of prejudice and skepticism. This finding suggests that the reintegration of ex-combatants might be affected by the NIMBY phenomena. Although willing to economically support the peace process, individuals are skeptical towards personal encounters with ex-combatants. We conclude that policies should decrease stigmatization towards ex-combatants to achieve sustainable peace.
Discrimination in peacebuidling: The role of moral wiggle room
Tatiana Orozco Garcia, Marcela IbanezConflicts tend to polarize societies generating divisions among citizens along with identity feelings as ”enemy vs. friend” or ”offender vs. victim.” These out-group/in-group stereotypes persist when the civil conflict ends, threatening sustainable peacebuilding possibilities. We study discriminatory preferences towards former perpetrators after conflict and whether individuals avoid information and use ”moral wiggle room” to excuse selfish behavior. The context of the study is Colombia. After the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and Farc combatants, reconstruction efforts have focused on combatants’ economic reintegration. Unless the population is willing to support the reintegration efforts initiated by ex-combatants, recidivism is at risk. We employ an online field experiment to investigate two main questions. First, we study discriminatory preferences eliciting the WTP for a product produced by either ex-FARC combatants or other farmers. Second, we test if individuals strategically decide to remain ignorant about the identity of the producer of the good to act selfishly. The data indicates that, on average, participants pay less for the coffee when the probability of receiving coffee produced by ex-combatants is higher, beliefs about ex-combatants are positively correlated with the WTP, and avoiding information leads to a higher WTP.
The Hidden Cost of Violent Conflict: Sorting into Local Labor Markets in Colombia
Kerstin Grosch, Marcela Ibanez, Gerhard RienerViolent conflicts have negative effects on prosperity and development. Reconstruction efforts require that a qualified labor force is willing to work in highly violent areas. We use a field experiment to investigate the effects of life risk on sorting in the labor market. We offer comparable jobs in low and high conflict areas in Colombia to a pool of job seekers. Application rates decrease by 12 percentage points due to riskiness. This drop is similar for male and female job seekers, suggesting that if women are more risk-averse than men, the difference is not large enough to have an economic impact. A salary increase helps increase application rates to high-risk jobs but does not close the gap.
“It pays to be green”: The role of persuasive communication to foster conservation
Viviana Urueña, Marcela Ibanez, Gerhard RienerWe experimentally test the effectiveness of narratives and imperatives to promote pro-environmental behavior among rural population in Madagascar. We find support for the predictions by B´enabou et al. (2019) and show that imperatives are more effective at promoting donations for a reforestation project than narratives. Yet, narratives have a larger positive effect for populations with a low level of education. Our results suggest that emphasizing the consequences of environmental degradation on future living conditions (food insecurity, low productivity) is an effective frame to promote environmental efforts among low- income populations. However, this form of communication could crowd out donations among participants with high concerns for future generations.