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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
Authors: 
James Fearon, Macartan Humphreys, Jeremy M. Weinstein
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
DOI: 
10.1257/aer.99.2.287