La science économique au service de la société
Oliver Vanden Eynde

Oliver Vanden Eynde

Professeur titulaire d'une chaire à PSE

Directeur de recherche CNRS

Campus Jourdan – 48 Boulevard Jourdan 75014 Paris

5e étage, bureau 59

Tél. 01 80 52 17 22

  • Capital humain et développement
  • Economie politique du développement
  • Économie politique et institutions

I'm a researcher (directeur de recherche) at the CNRS and a professor at PSE. I'm also affiliated with the CEPR. My research focuses on civil conflict, crime, economic development, rural infrastructure and the role of the military and police in developing countries. I'm the co-director of PSE's PPD programme and the head of engagement of the RECIPE research programme (CEPR).

Publications

"Losing on the Home Front? Battlefield Casualties, Media, and Public Support for Foreign Interventions", joint with Thiemo Fetzer, Pedro CL Souza, and Austin Wright. (Forthcoming, American Journal of Political Science)

"Fiscal Incentives for Conflict: Evidence from India's Red Corridor" (working paper), joint with Jacob Shapiro, Review of Economics and Statistics (2023), Vol. 105 (1).

"Security Transitions" (working paper), joint with Thiemo Fetzer, Pedro CL Souza, and Austin Wright, American Economic Review (2021), Vol.111 (7).

"Trickle-down Ethnic Politics: Drunk and Absent in the Kenya Police Force (1957-1970)" (working paper), joint with Patrick Kuhn and Alex Moradi, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy (2018).

"Targets of violence: Evidence from India's Naxalite Conflict" (working paper), Economic Journal (2018). 

"Building connections: Political corruption and road construction in India(working paper), joint with Jonathan Lehne and Jacob Shapiro, Journal of Development Economics (2018), Vol.131.

"Economic determinants of the Maoist Conflict in India", joint with Maitreesh Ghatak, Economic and Political Weekly (2017), Vol.52 (39).

"Military service and human capital accumulation: evidence from colonial Punjab"Journal of Human Resources (2016), Vol.51 (4). 

Working Papers

 "Complementarities in Infrastructure: Evidence from Indian Agriculture", with Liam Wren-Lewis. (submitted)

Complementarities between infrastructure projects have been understudied. Our paper examines interactions in the impacts of large-scale road construction, electrification, and mobile phone coverage programs in rural India. We find strong evidence of complementary impacts between roads and electricity on agricultural production: dry season cropping increases significantly when villages receive both, but not when they receive one without the other. These complementarities are associated with a shift of cropping patterns towards market crops and with improved economic conditions.  In contrast, we find no consistent evidence of complementarities for the mobile coverage program. 

"Cooperation between National Armies: Evidence from the Sahel borders", with Marion Richard. (submitted)

The effectiveness of security operations often depends on cooperation between different national armies. Such cooperation can be particularly important when international borders are porous. In this project, we investigate how the creation of an international armed force that could operate across international borders (the G5-Sahel Joint Force) affected conflict dynamics in the Sahel region. Relying on a regression discontinuity design, we find that the G5 mission lowered the intensity of conflict locally in its zone of operation. Further analysis of geographical conflict propagation patterns indicates that the G5-Sahel force facilitated security operations in border areas.

"Team production on the battlefield: Evidence from NATO in Afghanistan", with Thiemo Fetzer and Austin Wright. (submitted)

Managing military operations across and between teams of partner nations remains a first-order challenge to security and development during conflict. NATO, under the umbrella of  the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), brought together troops from 28 countries to help enhance security provision in Afghanistan. ISAF units were given responsibility for specific operational units. The assignment of responsibilities to different national armed forces could lead to coordination problems. We explore whether the provision of security is affected by horizontal frictions (when different countries are responsible for different sides of borders) or vertical frictions (when different countries control different levels of the operational hierarchy). We find that both horizontal frictions and vertical frictions reduce military support activities, including aid projects. They are also associated with higher levels of insurgent violence. These findings indicate that misalignment between units within military organizations can undermine the effectiveness of security and development interventions during war, with broader implications for managing complex teams under risk.

"From muscle drain to brain gain: the long-term effects of Gurkha recruitment in Nepal", with François Libois, Ritu Muralidharan, and Juni Singh.

Books

"Infrastructures et Développement Rural: L'exemple de l'Inde" (in French), joint with Liam Wren-Lewis. «Collection du Cepremap» n°61 (forthcoming 2023), Editions Rue d'Ulm, Paris.

“L’économie appliquée du développement”, in: Un monde commun. Comprendre le monde pour mieux l’habiter ensemble : les savoirs des humanités et des sciences sociales. 2023, CNRS Editions.

Work in Progress

“Bidding for Roads”, joint with Jonathan Lehne and Jacob Shapiro. 

Dormant papers

"Coup-friendly Institutions and Apolitical Militaries: a Theory of Optimal Military Influence"

"Connecting the Red Corridor: Infrastructure Development in Conflict Zones", joint with Jamie Hansen-Lewis, Jacob Shapiro, and Austin Wright.   
A description of the data we collected is provided in an IGC Working Paper, and our descriptive analysis is summarized in an IGC Policy Brief. 

Research Grants

COOPCONFLICT  (ANR).

 

Teaching

PSE Summer School

Microeconomics, Markets and market failures : theory and public policies (PPD, M1)

Political Economy II (PPD and APE, M2)

 

Jobs

I'm looking for a 1-year post-doc as part of the ReCIPE programme and based at PSE