Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/227361 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 13834
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
What motivates kidnapping decisions by rebel groups? This paper studies news coverage of a proposed prisoner exchange program (the Acuerdo Humanitario; AH) in connection with FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) kidnappings in the early 2000s. We propose that AH News nourished the FARC's expectations of such an agreement, thereby altering their actions. Empirically, to circumvent latent endogeneity, we access disasters in countries hosting large numbers of Colombians as exogenous variation crowding out AH News. We find AH News systematically shifted the FARC's attention away from financial kidnappings (hostage-taking for ransom purposes) to political kidnappings (hostages subject to a potential prisoner swap). Neither news slant (articles supporting the AH) nor informational content drive results – rather, an explanation consistent with agenda setting appears most plausible. Further, AH News led to (i) more FARC killings of politicians; (ii) fewer non-kidnapping-related FARC attacks; (iii) more governmental press releases; and (iv) fewer military attacks on the FARC. Overall, AH News shifted the FARC's and the government's conflict strategy towards de-escalation while limiting casualties, at least in the short run.
Subjects: 
agenda setting
media
kidnapping
terrorism
FARC
JEL: 
D74
L82
K14
N46
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
1.68 MB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.