Quantifying the Economic Effects of Conflict: An Exploration of the Costs and the Studies on the Costs of the Colombian Armed Conflict

It is common for both the practitioner and academic communities to consider the economic, political and social costs faced by combatant and non-combatant actors in the contexts of internal armed conflicts to identify the probability of a peace negotiation to occur. However, we know little about the dimensions of these costs. this article reviews both the official and the academic production on the different costs incurred by the colombian society and economy in the course of the country’s prolonged internal armed conflict. It identifies how these costs have been quantified by different authors and institutions and discusses some of the limitations of these studies. The article suggests that it would be convenient to specify the affected social sectors or productive activities at risk in order to fine tune our ability to identify, enlist, and mobilize crucial peacebuilding partners.