This dissertation consists of three chapters in development economics which investigate questions related to intergroup contact and the consequences of civil conflicts. In the first chapter, I study how refugee networks influence social integration in the host community in the context of Turkey, a country that has been profoundly impacted by the arrival of more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees since 2011. Using a rich dataset on the mobile phone communications of Syrian refugees, I construct village-level measures of refugee presence and social integration. In villages with a larger refugee population, refugees made significantly more phone calls to locals and other refugees, and a higher proportion of their calls were placed to locals. I argue that refugee networks made it easier for their members to interact with locals by sharing information on local norms and creating new opportunities to meet locals. The second chapter examines how the cost of inter-ethnic contact influences inter-ethnic relations. The study uses the staggered improvements of the Indonesian road network during the 1990s and shows that it lowered the cost of intergroup contact. The resulting enhancement in access to other ethnic groups led to increasing rates of inter-ethnic marriages. The third chapter investigates the long-run effects of civil conflicts on human capital that owe their impact to family structure. Specifically, I study how the loss of a sibling during the 1994 genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda affected surviving children. The loss of a sibling had positive effects on human capital and negative effects on wealth. I argue that these results are consistent with standard models of fertility choice, although other mechanisms could also have played a role.

ABSTRACT This research investigates the role played by external actors in contemporary African civil conflicts with specific attention to South Africa’s leading role in addressing Burundi’s intractable civil conflict. The inquiry was guided by looking at SA’s efforts in managing Burundi’s peace process in partnership with key external parties such as the Regional Initiative for peace in Burundi, AU and the UN; and by examining the level of success of SA’s involvement in the peace process and limitations encountered in pursuing diplomatic/political and military efforts aimed at resolving the civil conflict. The theories of conflict resolution and protracted social change, and scholarly and policy literature on intervention were drawn upon to frame the research. The struggle for political power explains the key root cause to Burundi’s civil conflict; rival politicians manipulated ethnicity and the past injustices, which are rooted in colonial policies of divide and rule, as tools in an attempt to accede to power and thereby, gain economic advantage at the expense of others. SA diplomatic efforts played an important role in addressing this by advocating for political and military power sharing. In order to reconcile and manage differences in approaches that were advocated to deal with the Burundi civil conflict, SA mobilized for support in Burundi’s neighbouring countries so as to back a peaceful solution to address the conflict. Further, in an effort to bolster its troops and, therefore, expand operations designed to promote peace in Burundi, SA had to merge into the African Mission in Burundi, and cooperate with the UN in order for the latter to render impetus to the peace process by, providing necessary resources and political support for the Burundi peace mission, and subsequently to assume the mission by taking over from the African mission. Although SA’s troop deployment provided protection for the former Hutu exile politicians and thereby, encouraged them to participate in negotiations and the transitional government, which participation increased chances of success in the peace process, however, SA did not do much in peacekeeping under the UN due to inadequate military equipments; civilians continued to be killed in the presence of SA troops, even though, under the UN their role extended to include civilian protection. To the extent that SA’s intensive diplomatic efforts resulted in the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement for Burundi, however, a number of Burundian parties did not participate in the signing of the agreement and the rebel movements were excluded from the process. Thus, the Arusha peace process failed to attain consensus in addressing Burundi’s contentious issues. Although the UN peacekeepers in Burundi, of which SA was part, had a Chapter VII mandate to enforce the peace of which civilian protection was part of their mission, they did not exercise it. Intervention was constrained by the Burundian government; they argued that the ultimate authority in maintaining security throughout the country rested on them. Moreover, it is difficult if not impossible to observe UN traditional peacekeeping norms while at the same time having to implement the responsibility to protect, which has been occasioned by the post-Cold War world, in which human rights have gained wider recognition, and international norms of sovereignty and nonintervention redefined. Thus, strict observance of the UN traditional peacekeeping norms, inhibit intervention aimed to protect civilians facing catastrophic circumstances or under imminent threat.

This dissertation examines the impact of FDI on peace in civil conflict-experienced states. While economic grievances have often been pointed out as a major cause of civil war within the literature, scholarship on post-conflict peace has focused mainly on political settlements, such as one-sided victories or power sharing, largely ignoring the importance of economic conditions. Thus, this dissertation aims to examine how FDI can affect sustainable peace in conflict-experienced states in terms of prevention of conflict recurrence and regime stability. FDI can be conducive to peace during/after civil conflicts, as it can bring capital which can be used for economic reconstruction and development in conflict-experienced states. Furthermore, this dissertation focuses on the impact of bilateral FDI. When a third party intervenes in a conflict management process and the third party has a great deal of economic interaction with the conflict experienced state, this economic interdependency will affect the third party's motivation to make the conflict-experienced state stable. It also provides third-party with greater leverage over peace efforts. Eventually, this third-party leverage will affect peace during/after civil conflicts. This dissertation is built around three interrelated empirical chapters: (1) determinants of FDI in conflict-experienced states, (2) the impact of FDI on conflict recurrence, and (3) the impact of FDI on regime stability. U.S. and Chinese FDI are used as focal cases for the analysis. This is because they have the most powerful economic and military influences in the world. As a result, this dissertation examines the impact of U.S. and Chinese FDI on peace in civil conflict-experienced states.

yes / The last few years have seen the emergence of a series of regulatory initiatives that have been developed, partly in response to the twin agendas of human security and strong states, but which represent a specific reaction to the political economies deemed to underpin contemporary civil conflicts ¿ most notably the way in which local and global markets in everything from diamonds to drugs have been exploited to fund often vicious civil conflicts, particularly in environments characterised by endemic corruption. This new body of local and global regulation, what might loosely be characterised as new laws and new codes to address the political economies of the new wars, include: UN embargoes on diamonds and timber being used to fund conflicts, the development of regimes such as the Kimberley certification system, and initiatives to ensure the transparent and effective use of natural resource revenues. Generally represented as a progressive response to the political economies that drive contemporary civil conflicts, these new initiatives have produced a set of formal and informal regulatory frameworks that are, in fact, profoundly asymmetric in their scope and application. Indeed, one of the defining features of these initiatives is not so much the impartial application of regulations to firms and corrupt elites but either their selective application or, alternatively, their selective relegation in favour of an emphasis on far weaker norms and voluntary codes. The aim of this paper then, is first, to examine the operation of the new codes and regulations in general and to demonstrate the problems in their implementation. Second, the paper will then go onto examine one specific innovation ¿ the Kimberley Certification Scheme designed to prevent the trade in conflict diamonds in order to demonstrate the asymmetries that exist in current regulatory mechanisms designed to introduce ethical markets. It will do this in particular by focussing on the impact of certification for the diamond sector in Sierra Leone. A key argument in this section will be that whilst this new regime for conflict diamonds aims to transform behaviour through transparency and policing, and whilst it appears to have had some success, it has not in fact transformed the conditions that gave rise to the illicit diamond trade in Sierra Leone prior to conflict. Along with the problems inherent in broader development policy on Sierra Leone this raises serious questions. In particular, whilst there may be little short-term risk of conflict, the planned departure of UNAMSIL, continued regional instability, persistent corruption and the failure to fundamentally transform the nature of the diamond market in Sierra Leone, all raise question marks regarding the nature (and indeed sustainability) of the peace that is being created.

Cette thèse apporte un nouvel éclairage au débat sur la dégradation de l'environnement et le développement. Elle analyse les déterminants et les effets macroéconomiques de la dégradation de l'environnement. Elle est subdivisée en deux parties. La première partie analyse les effets de l'éducation et des institutions démocratiques sur la qualité de l'environnement. Le premier chapitre analyse le rôle de l'éducation dans la protection de l'environnement. Les résultats empiriques indiquent que l’effet dépend du niveau de développement. Contrairement à l’échantillon des pays en développement où elle n’a pas effet, l'éducation est source de pollution dans les pays développés. Cependant, cet effet est atténué en présence de bonnes institutions démocratiques. Le deuxième chapitre étudie l'impact des institutions démocratiques sur la qualité de l'environnement. Nous montrons qu´elles ont un effet direct et positif sur la qualité de l'environnement. Celui-Ci est plus élevé pour les polluants locaux que pour les polluants globaux. De plus, ce chapitre identifie des canaux indirects par lesquels l´amélioration de la démocratie dégrade l'environnement. En effet, en favorisant l´adoption de politiques de redistribution des revenus et de politiques économiques, la démocratie a un effet indirect et négatif sur la protection de l'environnement. La deuxième partie propose deux essais sur les effets du changement climatique et des politiques environnementales sur le développement. Le troisième chapitre met en évidence un effet négatif et significatif de la variabilité climatique sur la sécurité alimentaire dans les pays en développement. Cet effet apparait plus élevé dans les pays africains. Par ailleurs, cet effet est exacerbée dans les pays à conflit et ceux vulnérables aux chocs des prix des biens alimentaires. Le quatrième chapitre analyse l’effet de la similitude des politiques environnementales sur le commerce bilatéral. Contrairement aux études précédentes qui utilisent des indicateurs partiels de réglementation environnementale (indicateurs axés sur les moyens ou sur les résultats), nous construisons on un indicateur de politique environnementale révélé. Les résultats suggèrent que la similitude dans les politiques environnementales n'a pas d'effet sur les flux commerciaux bilatéraux. En outre les résultats ne dépendent ni du niveau de développement de pays partenaires ni des caractéristiques des biens exportés (biens manufacturés et biens primaires). / This dissertation is a contribution to the debate on environmental degradation and development. It focuses on the determinants and macroeconomic effects of environmental degradation. It is structured in two parts. The first part analyses the effects of education and democratic institutions on environmental quality. The first chapter analyses the role of education in environmental quality. No evidence of an effect of education on carbon dioxide emissions. However, this effect depends crucially on the sample of countries according to their levels of development. While the effect remains insignificant in developing countries, education does matter for carbon dioxide emissions in developed ones. Moreover, when controlling for the quality of democratic institutions, the positive effect of education on carbon dioxide emissions is mitigated in developed countries while remaining insignificant in developing ones. The second chapter explores the effect of democratic institutions on environmental quality. We evidence that democratic institutions do have a direct and positive effect on environmental quality. This positive effect is stronger for local pollutants than for global ones. More interestingly, it identifies the indirect channels through which democracy affects environmental degradation. Indeed, by increasing people’s preferences for redistribution and economic policies, democratic institutions have indirect and negative effects on environmental protection through income inequality and investments. In the second part, the dissertation provides two essays on the effects of environmental policies and climate change on development. The third chapter investigates the effects of climatic variability on food security. The results show that climatic variability reduces food security in developing countries. The adverse effect is higher for African sub-Saharan countries than for other developing countries. Second, the negative effect of climatic variability on food security is exacerbated in countries facing conditions of conflict and is high for the countries that are vulnerable to food price shocks. The fourth chapter provides new evidence about the effect of a gap in environmental policies between trading partners on trade flow. While previous papers have used partial measures of environmental regulations (input-Oriented or output-Oriented indicators), we compute an index of a country’s environmental policy. Results suggest that a similarity in environmental policies has no effect on bilateral trade flows. Moreover results do not appear to be conditional on the level of development of the countries trading or on the characteristics of exported goods (manufactured goods and primary commodities).