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Abstract

This dissertation comprises three essays on the Economics of Crime and Conflict. The first essay examines the effects of prisoner releases on community crime rates. The second evaluates a truce agreement between criminal organizations and its impact on small firms. The final chapter investigates the historical roots of religious violence in Africa. Chapter 2 provides estimates of criminal spillovers from released offenders to their neighbors. Leveraging a mass pardon in Ecuador, it shows that the release of an offender leads to increased criminal participation of people in their communities. The rise in criminal activity is nearly evenly divided between first-time offenders and individuals with prior criminal experience. The essay emphasizes the significance of social connections, particularly family networks, in facilitating the transmission of criminal behavior. Importantly, it also demonstrates that access to job training programs during incarceration can help mitigate these adverse spillovers. Chapter 3 examines the impact of a truce agreement between El Salvador's major gangs on the behavior of firms. The chapter demonstrates that the truce led to a reduction in aggregate violence in contested territories, resulting in a decline in firm size. It develops a theoretical model and uses data from a victimization survey to argue that this contraction is driven by gangs reallocating their efforts from inter-gang conflict toward the extortion of local businesses. Chapter 4 explores the relationship between colonial missionary activity in Africa and contemporary conflict and social unrest. It finds that districts with historical exposure to Christian missions are more likely to experience conflict in the twenty-first century. The chapter presents evidence that missionary presence increased religious fractionalization in the areas where they operated, which is associated with higher levels of unrest. This relationship is especially pronounced for events involving religiously affiliated actors or featuring a religious dimension.