| ID | 154546 |
| Title Proper | When do antipoverty programs reduce violence? India's rural employment guarantee and maoist conflict |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Kapur, Devesh ; Gawande, Kishore ; Aditya Dasgupta, Kishore Gawande and Devesh Kapur ; Dasgupta, Aditya |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Theory and extensive evidence connect poverty and underdevelopment to civil conflict yet evidence on the impact of development programs on violence is surprisingly mixed. To break this impasse, we exploit a within-country policy experiment to examine the conditions under which antipoverty programs reduce violence. The roll-out of India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme caused a large long-run reduction in Maoist conflict violence, as measured with an original data set based on local-language press sources. These pacifying effects were not uniform, however, but overwhelmingly concentrated in districts with sufficient pre-existing local state capacity to implement the program effectively. The results demonstrate the potential for anti-poverty programs to mitigate violent civil conflict by improving livelihoods, but also highlight the crucial role of state capacity in shaping these effects. |
| `In' analytical Note | International Organization Vol. 71, No.3; Summer 2017: p.605-632 |
| Journal Source | International Organization Vol: 71 No 3 |
| Key Words | Maoist Conflict ; Antipoverty Programs ; Reduce Violence ; India's Rural Employment Guarantee |