A consistent problem in understanding the politics and economics of fragile states is the lack of good data. Yet micro-data on commodity prices and exchange rates in different markets are often available.

Movement and co-movement of prices in different parts of a country can measure the degree of market integration, as well as state capacity and institutional strength across territory during distressed and relatively stable times, thus providing a backdoor avenue for understanding events within otherwise opaque countries.

In this workshop, we present and discuss initial results in this project using data from Somalia and North Korea.

Speakers:

• Dr Steven Oliver (Yale-NUS College)
• A/Prof Bridget Coggins (University of California, Santa Barbara)
• Dr. David Ubilava (School of Economics, University of Sydney)
• A/Prof Andrey Vasnev (Sydney Business School)
• A/Prof Sarah Phillips (Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney)
• A/Prof Justin Hastings (Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney)