Escalation of distributional conflict: Onset, dynamics, and group interactions

分配冲突的升级：发生、动态和群体互动

• 批准号: 423644053
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Florian Morath
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Finanzwissenschaft
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2018-12-31 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/423644053?language=en
• 关键词: Escalation; distributional; conflict; Onset; dynamics

Conflicts about the distribution of resources are present everywhere: sometimes they take place in the form of an armed conflict, sometimes as non-violent disputes, at other times distributional conflict can be solved by mutual agreement without major effort. But which factors cause a disagreement about the distribution of resources to build up, escalate and end up in open conflict and an impossibility to reach a peaceful resource allocation decision? The key focus of this research project is on the dynamics of distributional conflict and reasons for the onset and escalation of conflict. Two main sets of questions should be analyzed: (i) On the role of group dynamics and group identity for conflict escalation; and (ii) on informational aspects of dynamic conflict games as well as strategic behavior in the anticipation of distributional conflict, which may favor conflict escalation or its resolution. The project will advance the field of the economics of conflict by closely combining studies on the theory of conflict with empirical analyses. The economic literature on contests typically takes the emergence of a contest as given, rather than analyzing reasons for an escalation of conflict along the extensive margin. Moreover, the contestants are often modeled as unitary actors, abstracting from interactions within the adversary sides such as group dynamics, strategic concerns or "audience effects." For instance, reasons for the emergence of a contest have not yet been systematically studied for situations in which groups instead of individuals take the decision to initiate or resolve an open conflict and to cooperate across (ethnic or social) groups. Project area (i) will explicitly focus on such group interactions. Moreover, aspects of incomplete information can cause interesting dynamics of conflict investments caused by belief updating, for instance. These have received little attention in the literature but can help explain actual conflict behavior and will, thus, be the focus of project area (ii). The corresponding sets of research questions involve theoretical as well as empirical and experimental work. The systematic analyses of group interactions and dynamic aspects of distributional conflict will help understand major current policy problems such as ethnic or political conflict at the macro level and identity-based discrimination and conflict at the micro level. The findings will provide a basis for the assessment of institutions that favor de-escalation and conflict resolution.

关于资源分配的冲突无处不在：它们有时以武装冲突的形式发生，有时以非暴力争端的形式发生，有时分配冲突可通过相互商定解决，而不需要付出太大努力。但是，哪些因素导致在资源分配方面的分歧累积、升级并最终导致公开冲突，以及不可能达成和平的资源分配决定？这一研究项目的重点是分配冲突的动态以及冲突开始和升级的原因。应分析两组主要问题：(I)群体动态和群体认同对冲突升级的作用；(Ii)动态冲突博弈的信息方面，以及预期分配冲突时的战略行为，这可能有利于冲突升级或冲突的解决。该项目将通过将关于冲突理论的研究与经验分析紧密结合起来，推动冲突经济学领域的发展。关于竞争的经济文献通常认为竞争的出现是给定的，而不是分析冲突沿着广泛差距升级的原因。此外，参赛者通常被建模为单一的参与者，从敌方内部的互动中抽象出来，如群体动态、战略担忧或“观众效应”。例如，在群体而不是个人决定发起或解决公开冲突并跨(族裔或社会)群体合作的情况下，尚未系统地研究出现竞争的原因。项目区(I)将明确关注这样的小组互动。此外，例如，不完全信息的各个方面可能会导致由信念更新引起的冲突投资的有趣动态。这些在文献中很少受到关注，但可以帮助解释实际的冲突行为，因此将成为项目领域(II)的重点。相应的研究问题集既涉及理论工作，也涉及实证和实验工作。对分配冲突的群体互动和动态方面的系统分析将有助于理解当前的重大政策问题，如宏观上的族裔或政治冲突以及微观上的基于身份的歧视和冲突。这些发现将为评估支持缓和局势和解决冲突的机构提供基础。