Armed Conflicts and Household Socioeconomic Status in the Lake Chad Basin: A Random Coefficient Model Approach

Muftau Olaiya Olarinde; Romanuns Osabohien; Evans Osabuohien

doi:10.1515/peps-2023-0013

Abstract

This study extends the existing literature on the relationship between armed conflicts and the socioeconomic status of households in Lake Chad Basin (LCB) countries by adopting a random coefficient model to analyse micro-panel data covering the 1997–2020 periods. The random coefficient approach allows for country-specific effects in explaining variations in both the nature and degree of the effects of conflict due to differing country characteristics. The result evidenced a significant negative effect of the average impact of armed conflict on poverty, while the coefficient of educational outcome is insignificant. The country-specific results point to significant inter-country variations in the impact of armed conflicts on poverty and education outcomes. The descriptive statistics result shows that the inter-country variations could be attributed to differing quality of institutions. Finally, environmental degradation and macroeconomic uncertainties do not appear to bear a systematic relationship with householdsʼ level of socioeconomic status in the Lake Chad Basin. These findings indicate that a uniform and blanket adoption of public policies by government in Lake Chad Basin countries will not yield a significant positive result. Therefore, governments, practitioners and academicians should contextualise policies/recommendations meant to improve socioeconomic status of households in conflict, while strengthening the quality of institutions to ameliorate the impact of conflict on socioeconomic status (SES) of households.

Keywords: Lake Chad Basin countries; conflict; socioeconomic status; institution; panel model; macroeconomic uncertainties

JEL Classification: I2; I30; Q34

Corresponding author: Muftau Olaiya Olarinde, Department of Economics, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, Sokoto, Nigeria, E-mail: olarinde.muftau@udusok.edu.ng

Acknowledgement

This study draws insights from the lessons gained at the Workshop and Network Meeting for African Postgraduate and Young Researchers in Economics and Social Sciences, organised by the Centre for Economic Policy and Development Research (CEPDeR), Covenant University and Witten/Herdecke University, Germany. The workshop was funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH) under Research Linkage Programme on Access to Land and Agricultural Value Chain: Female and Youth Engagement Discourse in Nigeria. The Contributions of the workshop participants and resource persons are appreciated. The views expressed are those of the authors. I equally acknowledge the contributions of the two anonymous reviewers and the Editor-in-chief, Raul Caruso who have reviewed this work for their suggestions and comments towards improving the quality of the paper.

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Supplementary Material

This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/peps-2023-0013).

Received: 2023-03-06

Accepted: 2023-11-15

Published Online: 2023-12-11

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