Civil conflicts are an important concern for development, yet it is only relatively recently that economists have developed a substantive body of research on them and the research that exists is mainly on the determinants of conflict. This paper provides an analysis of the costs of conflict for the countries that are most affected by it, namely low income and fragile countries in Africa. It provides an analysis of the impact of conflict on economic growth, distinguishing different fragile and non fragile states and finding that there are signi ficant differences, with fragile countries most affected. It also considers the potential spillover effects of conflict, that can further impact upon fragile states
and investigates the impact of conflict on other development indicators.
