Youth, Mining, and Their Impact on Conflict

Regions with valuable minerals can attract conflict. In addition, the people participating in such conflicts are often argued not to be very old, sometimes even younger than eighteen. Therefore, this thesis aims to discover whether large youth populations, both relative and absolute, impact the likelihood of mining-induced violence. This thesis focuses on Africa over the period 1997-2010. By exploiting provincial youth population statistics for 13 African countries and changes in world mineral prices, this thesis shows that provincial youth populations are negatively correlated with the onset of mining-induced conflict. This could be explained by the fact that decreased mineral prices lower the youth’s opportunity costs and increase their grievances, making them more likely to engage in conflict. Lastly, this thesis suggests that youth and mining-induced conflict are most strongly negatively correlated for small-scale and less violent conflicts, being riots and protest.