Can Development Aid Contribute to Social Cohesion after Civil War? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Post-conflict Liberia
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Year:
2009
Organization / Publisher / Reference:
American Economic Review, 99(2): 287–91
Areas:
Governance
Sub-topic:
Social cohesion
Publicly available?:
yes
Method:
Treatment and control study.Not a nationwide survey, rather, an impact assessment of aid on social cohesion.
Sample size (n):
1 979
Main findings:
Social cohesion already quite high in measured communities (northern Liberia); CDR project (DFiD financed, IRC executed) has lead to significantly higher community cohesion, as measured by a game to raise funds for a selected collective community project. High level of displacement (85% ever, 25% still in 2008.
Further research recommendations:
Uses both a) surveying households to assess levels of trust, patterns of community activity, and the extent of associational life, drawing on a subset of the battery of social capital questions developed by the World Bank. But we were conscious that, particularly in the context of a program designed. and B) used an experiential game to assess it too.
Survey:
no
Link:
http://fsi.stanford.edu/publications/can_development_aid_contribute_to_social_cohesion_after_civil_war_evidence_from_a_field_experiment_in_postconflict_liberia/
DOI:
10.1257/aer.99.2.287