Seminario CEDE - Juan Sebastián Galán

This paper examines the social origins of Colombian paramilitary behavior in 2000-2006. Based on fieldwork, we hypothesize that peasant (campesinos) commanders were more likely to develop preferences characterized by reciprocity and develop a model of reciprocity which predicts that more reciprocal commanders should provide both more violence (fears) and public goods (dreams). We collect and geocode novel paramilitary data from Transitional Justice Tribunals. Exploiting discontinuities across paramilitary front boundaries, we find empirical support for the predictions of our model, suggesting that in contrast to conventional wisdom, violence and public goods provision can be complements.