CeDEx workshop - Ian Levely (Charles University, Prague)

Trust and re-integration of ex-child soldiers in Nothern Uganda: An experimental approach

We investigate the reintegration of former child soldiers in the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda through an artefactual field experiment. We use results from a trust and dictator game with belief elicitation to determine whether former child soldiers face discrimination from members of their community, and whether any difference in behavior towards them is taste-based or driven by beliefs about their expected trustworthiness. We find evidence that senders in the trust game actually trust ex-child soldiers more than their peers, but only if they have a son who had been a child soldier during the conflict. These beliefs are qualitatively accurate: ex-child soldiers did indeed return more on average than their peers. This result is mainly due to ex-child soldiers who have committed acts of violence against civilians. The results of this study contribute to both the literature on the nature of trust and altruism as well as the reintegration of ex-combatants, with possible policy implications in the case of the latter.