Abstract:
The Dodd Frank Act was passed by the US Congress in July 2010 and included a provision – Section
1502 – that aimed to break the link between conflict and minerals in the Eastern Democratic Republic
of Congo. To date there is only one rigorous quantitative analysis that investigates the impact of Dodd-
Frank on local conflict events. Looking at the short-term impact (2011-2012), it finds that the policy
backfired. This study builds on a larger, more representative, dataset of mining sites and extends the
time horizon by three years (2013-2015). The results indicate that the policy also backfired in the
longer run, especially in areas home to gold mines. For territories with the average number of gold
mines, the introduction of Dodd-Frank increased the incidence of battles with 44%; looting with 51%
and violence against civilians with 28%, compared to pre-Dodd Frank averages. Delving deeper into
the impact of the conflict minerals legislation is important, as President Trump suspended the
legislation in February 2017 for a two-year period, ordering his administration to replace it with
another policy.
