Date of Award
2016
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Economics
First Advisor
Qi Ge
Abstract
In this paper, I am using panel data of merged datasets that include coffee bean hectares of cultivation, coca leaf cultivation, massacres, and selective assassinations to study the relationship between coffee bean production and the level of homicide rates in Colombia during 2002-2010. This is a departmental level analysis across six coffee-growing departments: Antioquia, Caldas, Cauca, Huila, Tolima, and Cauca Valley. I use a fixed effect regression model to analyze the relationship between coffee bean production, coca leaf production and the two types of homicides. My results do not show a direct link between coffee bean production and levels of homicides reported. However, there is a significant negative correlation between the dummy year variables and both types of homicides. Thus, demonstrating that other factors had a significant influence on the reduction of homicides across the 8 years, such as the election of a new president and the establishment of international coffee prices. Moreover, the results also show that encouraging farmers to cultivate an alternative crop is not always enough to completely halt the cultivation of coca crops. Most of the literature on coffee bean production and crime rate, studies general crime in Colombia during one period of time or before the years 2000. My study adds to the current literature by analyzing the effect of coffee bean cultivation on specific crimes, massacres and selective assassinations, across the years 2002-2010.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Nunez, Mayra, "Coffee Bean, Coca Leaf, and Crime in Colombia" (2016). Economics Student Theses and Capstone Projects. 10.
https://creativematter.skidmore.edu/econ_studt_schol/10