Electoral Violence and Supply Chain Disruptions in Kenya's Floriculture Industry / Christopher Ksoll, Rocco Macchiavello, Ameet Morjaria.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ksoll, Christopher.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Macchiavello, Rocco.

Morjaria, Ameet.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w29297.

NBER working paper series no. w29297

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2021.

Summary:

Violent conflicts, particularly at election times in Africa, are a common cause of instability and economic disruption. This paper studies how firms react to electoral violence using the case of Kenyan flower exporters during the 2008 post-election violence as an example. The violence induced a large negative supply shock that reduced exports primarily through workers' absence and had heterogeneous effects: larger firms and those with direct contractual relationships in export markets suffered smaller production and losses of workers. On the demand side, global buyers were not able to shift sourcing to Kenyan exporters located in areas not directly affected by the violence nor to neighboring Ethiopian suppliers. Consistent with difficulties in insuring against supply-chain risk disruptions caused by electoral violence, firms in direct contractual relationships ramp up shipments just before the subsequent 2013 presidential election to mitigate risk.

Notes:

Print version record

September 2021.