Replication data for: Hit or Miss? The Effect of Assassinations on Institutions and War

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Benjamin F. Jones; Benjamin A. Olken

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Data-Codebook.pdf	application/pdf	67.8 KB	10/12/2019 03:12:PM
LICENSE.txt	text/plain	14.6 KB	10/12/2019 03:12:PM
MakeTablesFigures.do	text/plain	71 KB	10/12/2019 03:12:PM
ReadMe.pdf	application/pdf	230.3 KB	10/12/2019 03:12:PM
assassinations_data.dta	application/octet-stream	47.4 KB	10/12/2019 03:12:PM
mergeddata.dta	application/octet-stream	2.3 MB	10/12/2019 03:12:PM
ranksumben.ado	text/plain	3.2 KB	10/12/2019 03:12:PM

Project Citation:

Jones, Benjamin F., and Olken, Benjamin A. Replication data for: Hit or Miss? The Effect of Assassinations on Institutions and War. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2009. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-10-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/E114047V1

Project Description

Summary: Assassinations are a persistent feature of the political landscape. Using a new dataset of assassination attempts on all world leaders from 1875 to 2004, we exploit inherent randomness in the success or failure of assassination attempts to identify the effects of assassination. We find that, on average, successful assassinations of autocrats produce sustained moves toward democracy. We also find that assassinations affect the intensity of small-scale conflicts. The results document a contemporary source of institutional change, inform theories of conflict, and show that small sources of randomness can have a pronounced effect on history. (JEL D72, N40, O17)

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
      O17 Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
      N40 Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: General, International, or Comparative

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Published Versions

V1 [2019-10-12]

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