"Entrepreneurship and Violent Conflict: An Overview and Recent Findings from Colombia and other Developing Countries" with Tilman Brück from German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Humboldt-University of Berlin, Humboldt Univ. of Berlin and ICS Lisbon will be held at ICS on the 4th of March at 16.15h.

The paper analyzes the relationships between conflict, informal entrepreneurship and poverty using micro-level survey data from a war-affected developing country. In doing so, it paper considers the effects of on-going or past conflict (the conflict legacy) on the behavior and welfare of informal entrepreneurs. It is argued that in the poorest developing countries generally and in conflict affected countries specifically informal entrepreneurship is a key survival activity in both rural and urban areas.

Entrepreneurship is often associated with formal market activities. However, conflict challenges the legality and feasibility of such market relationships and threatens formal sector investments and returns. Informal activities hence become relatively more attractive in poor conflict economies. Furthermore, the welfare effects of entrepreneurship are often assumed to be positive - or simply unknown.

This paper hence links information on conflict and informal entrepreneurship with indicators of poverty (or well-being more generally), thus helping to identify how conflict and entrepreneurship may influence directly or indirectly the welfare of individuals and their households. The paper employs suitable micro-level data from a developing country having experienced war.

Methodologically, the use of the conflict data can be used to generate exogenous variation in the behavior of the entrepreneurs. Conflict may force entrepreneurs to adapt to the new institutional and economic environment depending on ability and other endowments, hence creating diversity in outcomes. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible policy implications.