The Reach of Radio: Ending Civil Conflict through Rebel Demobilization
研究调频广播在减少暴力冲突中的作用，利用随机地形导致的无线电覆盖差异，发现播放叛逃信息能增加叛逃、减少死亡和暴力事件。
We examine the role of FM radio in mitigating violent conflict. We collect original data on radio broadcasts encouraging defections during the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency. This constitutes the first quantitative evaluation of an active counterinsurgency policy that encourages defections through radio messages. Exploiting random topography-driven variation in radio coverage along with panel variation at the grid-cell level, we identify the causal effect of messaging on violence. Broadcasting defection messages increases defections and reduces fatalities, violence against civilians, and clashes with security forces. Income shocks have opposing effects on both the conflict and the effectiveness of messaging.