Florian Léon (Ferdi)

Civil conflict and firm recovery: Evidence from post-electoral crisis in Côte d’Ivoire

with Ibrahima Dosso

Abstract

This paper examines how firms recover after a civil conflict. Thanks to a rich firm-level database, we follow surviving enterprises before, during and after the 2011 post-electoral crisis in Côte d'Ivoire. Our main findings are summarized as follows. First, a partial recovery is achieved one year after the crisis (half of firm losses are recouped). However, three years after the end of the crisis, the level of productivity is ten percent lower than the year before the crisis. Second, we show a wide heterogeneity in recovery across firms (within the same industry). Young and local firms are more able to rebound after the crisis. In addition, credit-constrained firms are less resilient, highlighting the importance of access to credit in post-crisis periods. Finally, the recovery is higher for labor-intensive firms but firms relying on skilled workers face a lower resilience.

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