Growth, Democracy, and Civil War

Does economic growth affect the likelihood of civil war? Answering this question requires dealing with reverse causation. Our approach exploits that international commodity prices have a significant effect on the income growth of Sub-Saharan African countries. We show that lower income growth makes civil war more likely in non-democracies. This effect is significantly weaker in democracies; as a result, we find no link between growth and civil war in these countries. Our reducedform results also indicate that lower international commodity price growth has no effect on civil war in democracies, but raises the likelihood of civil war incidence and onset in nondemocracies.

Report of Recommendations to the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, June 30, 2005

State Audit Reports

Les proches dans le Code civil

Le législateur du Code civil a introduit le terme « proche » dans de nombreuses dispositions, mais n'en propose aucune définition, ce qui laisse une grande marge de manoeuvre pour son interprétation et son application. La signification et la portée du terme ne seront ainsi pas les mêmes selon le domaine juridique et la situation de fait analysés. Face à cette grande diversité d'usage du terme, l'auteure de la contribution propose de l'appréhender selon les domaines et les buts dans lesquels il est utilisé par le législateur afin de réussir à tracer les contours des différents cercles de proches envisageables.

Ethnic Polarization, Potential Conflict, and Civil Wars

This paper analyzes the relationship between ethnic fractionalization, polarization, and conflict. In recent years many authors have found empirical evidence that ethnic fractionalization has a negative effect on growth. One mechanism that can explain this nexus is the effect of ethnic heterogeneity on rent-seeking activities and the increase in potential conflict, which is negative for investment. However the empirical evidence supporting the effect of ethnic fractionalization on the incidence of civil conflicts is very weak. Although ethnic fractionalization may be important for growth, we argue that the channel is not through an increase in potential ethnic conflict. We discuss the appropriateness of indices of polarization to capture conflictive dimensions. We develop a new measure of ethnic heterogeneity that satisfies the basic properties associated with the concept of polarization. The empirical section shows that this index of ethnic polarization is a significant variable in the explanation of the incidence of civil wars. This result is robust to the presence of other indicators of ethnic heterogeneity, other sources of data for the construction of the index, and other data structures.

Transitory Economic Shocks and Civil Conflict

I examine whether civil conflict is triggered by transitory negative economic shocks. My approach follows Miguel, Satyanath, and Sergenti (2004) in using rainfall as an exogenous source of economic shocks in Sub-Saharan African countries. The main difference is that my empirical specifications take into account that rainfall shocks are transitory. Failure to do so may, for example, lead to the conclusion that civil conflict is more likely to break out following negative rainfall shocks when conflict is most probable following years with exceptionally high rainfall levels.

Pregnancy Discrimination Factsheet

Information on pregnancy discrimination under Chapter 216 of the Iowa Code and Title VII and the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993.

TERMINOLOGIA DO DIREITO PROCESSUAL CIVIL EM CABO VERDE

O presente trabalho tem como objectivo prioritário propor, a criação de uma base de dados terminológica e textual trilingue – Português – Inglês – Francês no domínio do direito processual civil em Cabo Verde. No entanto, tencionamos no futuro introduzir o caboverdiano como uma quarta língua na base de dados. Assim, os termos e as colocações terminológicas que iremos armazenar estarão na base da preparação dos recursos linguísticos e terminológicos para o ensino do português jurídico nas universidades e institutos superiores do arquipélago, além de ser uma ferramenta indispensável para os juristas, advogados, magistrados, tradutores, entre outros. Focalizámos a nossa análise nas colocações terminológicas nominais que na sua estrutura contemplem pelo menos um adjectivo: apreciação do Supremo Tribunal de Justiça, ampliação da competência territorial, intervenção do tribunal colectivo, etc.