Measuring Conflict in Micro-Level Surveys The sourcebook reviews current practices and discusses specific methodologies for empirical By Tilman Brück, Patricia Justino, Philip research in conflict-affected areas and among Verwimp and Andrew Tedesco conflict-affected populations. The module is particularly useful for researchers interested in  Socioeconomic research on conflict has developing a conflict typology. It may also be demonstrated that the circumstances of useful for the analysis of violence in other conflict matter greatly to policies designed to settings such as fragile states or areas suffering overcome legacies of conflict. from high degrees of violence (such as some  Measuring conflict exposure in micro-surveys urban areas affected by organized crime). also helps to avoid biases in studies of conflict-affected areas not directly focusing Current Survey Practices on violence or conflict. On the one hand, some recent surveys focus on  Capturing how people experience such investigating conflict, creating new methods for conflict dynamics requires increased capacity collecting data at the micro-level. Examples on the part of researchers and policymakers include surveys on ex-combatants or child to identify how violent conflict affects soldiers. This new research details conflict’s individuals, households and communities functions and dynamics, as well as its impact on along key social and economic dimensions. people’s behavior and welfare, on institutional change, and on overall development outcomes. Violent conflict has significant effects on the welfare, resilience and behavior of individuals, On the other hand, there is a great need for households and communities. These impacts making existing multi-purpose socioeconomic deserve close study at the micro-level, both as a surveys more conflict-sensitive. The World Bank new field of academic inquiry and as an aid to and other institutions have developed highly development and poverty reduction policy. Policy sophisticated surveying techniques, most notably practitioners have increasingly realized the the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS), importance of understanding, compensating for, to collect socioeconomic data at the micro-level. and overcoming the constraints caused by Yet these instruments have not been explicitly violent conflict. adapted for use in conflict-affected areas, despite being deployed in several conflict contexts. To gather better data on the impacts of such conflict, well-designed surveys need to Standard household surveys in conflict-affected acknowledge the prior existence of violent countries only sporadically feature questions conflict in formal questionnaires and survey related to the causes and consequences of designs. The Conflict Survey Sourcebook and the violence, leaving treatments ad-hoc and accompanying Conflict Exposure Module serve as incomparable across different settings. Further, a basis for developing how a socioeconomic the lack of micro-level data forces researchers to survey may be deployed in conflict-affected rely on standardized macro-level measures of contexts. violent conflict (e.g. number of battle deaths per country per year). This makes it hard to build a Living Standards Measurement Study Brief Series www.worldbank.org/lsms-isa systematic and comparable understanding of The module is not intended to be a “standard”/ how violence has affected different people, “one size fits all” approach. By adapting the communities and population groups, and module to local needs and realities, micro-level constitutes a key gap in current development surveys in conflict-affected countries can be interventions. more realistic and appropriate. Studies using such conflict-sensitive surveys will be more Methodological Challenges nuanced and persuasive, whether they aim to There are several common methodological explain violence or investigate the legacies of challenges related to researching in conflict- violence. Even studies not directly referring to affected contexts. The first challenge is to agree conflict will be improved if they use some or all on a workable definition of conflict. The of the conflict variables suggested in the module, Sourcebook defines conflict broadly as the as otherwise studies run the risk of incurring systematic breakdown of the social contract omitted variable bias. resulting from and/or leading to changes in social norms, which involve violence instigated Conclusions through collective action. Examples of such The Sourcebook maps out a path for building a conflict include genocide, civil war, armed systematic and comparable understanding of the rebellion, and terrorism. channels through which different types of group- based violence affect the behavior and welfare of Other important methodological points include individuals and households—and thereby their the choice of the appropriate unit of analysis; communities and countries. how to introduce time variation into surveys; common biases that often appear in data Conflict should be treated as an important collected from conflict-affected populations (e.g. variable in its own right. Many socio-economic various selection biases and recall error); and surveys in conflict-affected areas ask about ethical and security challenges associated with conflict only selectively, missing important researching in conflict affected contexts and with features in the process, while other surveys populations that have experienced violence. specialize on particular conflict features without giving a comprehensive treatment of the multi- The Conflict Exposure Module faceted ways that conflict can impact The Conflict Exposure Module aims to identify respondents. manifestations of violent conflict at the individual and household level through both direct and Appropriately adapted to local conditions, the indirect channels. Violent conflict may directly Sourcebook and its Conflict Exposure Module can impact welfare, through physical and serve as a basic model for comprehensively psychological harm, death or illness of household investigating how conflict changes demographics members, destruction of assets and human in the household, affects economic welfare, capital, and displacement. Conflict may also have challenges people’s ability to cope, causes an indirect impact through its effects on income, physical harm, dislocates people, shortens prices, wages, access to markets, access to safety education, and alters perceptions. nets, social, economic and political institutions, community relations, and overall levels of insecurity. This brief is based on: Brück, Tilman, Justino, Patricia, Verwimp, Philip and Tedesco, Andrew The questions in the module are designed to (2013). Measuring conflict exposure in micro-level measure both types of impact channels. The surveys. LSMS-ISA Working Paper, Washington, module has also been designed to be included— D.C.: The World Bank. The full paper is available for with minor modifications depending on the local download at http://www.worldbank.org/lsms-isa. context—in future micro-level surveys conducted by the World Bank and other stakeholders in For more information, please visit: government, civil society and academia in www.worldbank.org/lsms-isa conflict-affected contexts. Handling a ready- made module saves upfront costs, makes more efficient use of staff and facilities, and helps to Or contact us at lsms@worldbank.org standardize, and hence compare, responses across different contexts of conflict and violence. Living Standards Measurement Study Brief Series www.worldbank.org/lsms-isa