# Arinze Nwokolo

> Assistant Professor, Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University.

Arinze Nwokolo is Assistant Professor at Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University. In his words: “My research investigates how formal and informal market frictions shape economic development across Sub-Saharan Africa, combining development economics, finance, political economy, and organizational economics.” Before LBS he was a CSAE Fellow at the University of Oxford; his PhD is from the University of Navarra. He teaches Corporate Finance in the Executive and Full-time MBA.

Email: anwokolo@lbs.edu.ng · CV: https://arinze-nwokolo.com/cv.pdf

## Publications

- [Terrorism, Trust, and Identity: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Nigeria](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajps.12769): With Robin Harding. American Journal of Political Science, 68(3), 942–957, 2024. We study the effects of terrorism on political trust and national versus ethnic identification. Making use of unexpected attacks by the extremist group Boko Haram in Nigeria, which occurred during the fieldwork of a public opinion survey in 2014, we show that even in a context of weak state institutions and frequent terrorist activities, terror attacks significantly increase political trust. We also find that the attacks significantly reduced the salience of respondents' national identity, instead increasing ethnic identification. These findings run counter to arguments that “rally around the flag” effects following terror attacks result from increased patriotism. The results have important implications for understanding the effects of terrorism in contexts of weak state institutions, frequent political violence, and politically salient ethnic divisions.
- [Oil Price Shocks and Civil Conflict: Evidence from Nigeria](https://arinze-nwokolo.com/papers/oil-price-shocks-and-civil-conflict-evidence-from-nigeria.pdf): The World Bank Economic Review, 36(1), 171–197, 2022. When and for what reason do governments choose to monopolize violence and consolidate power? Theory suggests three channels: when the government has coercive power against the opposition, if it shifts the distribution of power in its favor, and when contingent spoils are large. Using international oil price shocks and a novel dataset on oil-producing local government areas, this article examines how commodity prices affect civil conflict in Nigeria. Results show that a rise in oil price leads to a more than proportionate increase in government attacks on rebel groups in the oil region. The findings are consistent with the theoretical predictions: positive oil price shocks increase the monopoly of violence by the government through an increase in coercion, a rise in regaining territories from rebel groups, and an increase of violence in areas with large oil fields.

## Working papers

- [Gas Flaring, Agricultural Productivity and Labour Reallocation: Evidence from Nigeria](https://steg.cepr.org/sites/default/files/2025-05/gas_flaring_agriculture_steg.pdf): STEG working paper, 2025.
- [Putting Property Rights in Context: Colonial Cotton Concessions, Customary Land Tenure, and Development in Mozambique](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5932234): With Tuğba Bozçağa and Robin Harding. SSRN, 2025.

## Work in progress

- Climate Shocks and Farmer-Herder Conflict in Nigeria
- Free Health Care at Birth and Adult Mental Health: Evidence from South Africa
- Friends or Competitors: Peer Effects within Business Accelerator Programs: With Rupali Kaul and Yulu Tang.
- Gas Price Shocks, Air Pollution and Infant Mortality: Evidence from Nigerian Gas Flares
- Terror and Educational Outcomes: Evidence from Boko Haram Attacks
- Terrorism and Infant Mortality: Evidence from Nigeria
- The Impact of Mental Health Therapy on Job Creation and Business Outcomes in Youth and Female-Led Enterprises: With Jennifer Lansford and Eugene Ohu.
- The Impact of Trust for Investment: Evidence from Private Equity and Venture Capital Investment in Africa

## In the media

- [Gas flaring threatens agriculture and livelihoods in Nigeria](https://voxdev.org/topic/energy-environment/gas-flaring-threatens-agriculture-and-livelihoods-nigeria), VoxDevTalks, 1 July 2025
- [People of NOVAFRICA: Arinze Nwokolo](https://novafrica.org/17587/), NOVAFRICA, 13 February 2025
- [African Scholar Spotlight: Arinze Nwokolo](https://www.povertyactionlab.org/blog/2-9-24/african-scholar-spotlight-arinze-nwokolo), J-PAL, 9 February 2024
- [The Impact of Psychotherapy on Business Performance of Female-led Firms: project update](https://andeglobal.org/publication/the-impact-of-psychotherapy-on-business-performance-of-female-led-firms/), ANDE, 15 December 2022

## Elsewhere

- [J-PAL Invited Researcher](https://www.povertyactionlab.org/person/nwokolo)
- [NOVAFRICA](https://novafrica.org/external-members/)
- [International Growth Centre](https://www.theigc.org/people/arinze-nwokolo)
- [STEG and PEDL, CEPR](https://grp.cepr.org/people/arinze-nwokolo)
- [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=odl5jlAAAAAJ&hl=en)