Population displacement and urban conflict: Global evidence from more than 3300 flood events

In this paper, we study the effect of displacement of population into cities on urban conflict in developing countries. To do so, we construct a novel measure of exposure to floods, using data on more than 3,300 flood events worldwide, as an exogenous source of population displacement. We combine th...

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Autores:
Castells-Quintana, David
Lopez-Uribe, Maria del Pilar
McDermott, Thomas K.J.
Tipo de recurso:
Work document
Fecha de publicación:
2021
Institución:
Universidad de los Andes
Repositorio:
Séneca: repositorio Uniandes
Idioma:
eng
OAI Identifier:
oai:repositorio.uniandes.edu.co:1992/49963
Acceso en línea:
http://hdl.handle.net/1992/49963
Palabra clave:
Climate change
Floods
Displacement
Urbanization
Conflict
Social disorder
O18, Q34, Q54, Q56, R23
Rights
openAccess
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Description
Summary:In this paper, we study the effect of displacement of population into cities on urban conflict in developing countries. To do so, we construct a novel measure of exposure to floods, using data on more than 3,300 flood events worldwide, as an exogenous source of population displacement. We combine this with city level observations of more than 9,000 urban social disorder events. Exposure to floods is found to be associated with higher likelihood and frequency of urban social disorder. Our evidence suggests that the effects of floods on urban disorder occur mainly through the displacement of population into large cities. Exploring the information on urban disorder events in more detail, we find that the association between city growth and urban disorder is strongest for events related to public service provision, wages and food prices.