Economic Growth and Ethnic Violence : An Empirical Investigation of Hindu-Muslim Riots in India

Most studies of Hindu-Muslim riots in India have tended to emphasize the effects of social, cultural, or political factors on the occurrence of ethnic violence. In this article, the authors focus on the relationship between economic conditions and riots. Specifically, this article examines the effec...

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Main Authors:	Bohlken, Anjali Thomas, Sergenti, Ernest John
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	EN
Published:	2012
Subjects:	Conflict Conflict Resolution Alliances D740 Economics of Minorities and Races Non-labor Discrimination J150 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 Formal and Informal Sectors Shadow Economy Institutional Arrangements O170 Economic Sociology Economic Anthropology Social and Economic Stratification Z130
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5432

id	okr-10986-5432
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-54322021-04-23T14:02:22Z Economic Growth and Ethnic Violence : An Empirical Investigation of Hindu-Muslim Riots in India Bohlken, Anjali Thomas Sergenti, Ernest John Conflict Conflict Resolution Alliances D740 Economics of Minorities and Races Non-labor Discrimination J150 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 Formal and Informal Sectors Shadow Economy Institutional Arrangements O170 Economic Sociology Economic Anthropology Social and Economic Stratification Z130 Most studies of Hindu-Muslim riots in India have tended to emphasize the effects of social, cultural, or political factors on the occurrence of ethnic violence. In this article, the authors focus on the relationship between economic conditions and riots. Specifically, this article examines the effect of economic growth on the outbreak of Hindu-Muslim riots in 15 Indian states between 1982 and 1995. Controlling for other factors, the authors find that just a 1% increase in the growth rate decreases the expected number of riots by over 5%. While short-term changes in growth influence the occurrence of riots, this study finds no evidence of a relationship between the levels of wealth in a state and the incidence of ethnic riots. Moreover, by including state fixed effects, the authors determine that the negative relationship found between economic growth and riots is driven primarily by the relationship between growth and riots within a state over time rather than across states. These results are robust to controlling for a number of other factors such as economic inequality, demographic variables, political competition, temporal lags, spillover effects from adjacent states, and year effects. Finally, to address potential concerns that economic growth could be a consequence rather than a cause of violence or that other unobserved factors could confound the relationship between economic growth and the occurrence of Hindu-Muslim riots, the authors also employ instrumental variables (IV) estimation, using percentage change in rainfall as an instrument for growth. The results with IV estimation are similar to the results with non-IV estimation in terms of sign and significance, indicating that the negative effect of economic growth on riots is not due to reverse causality or omitted variables bias. 2012-03-30T07:32:48Z 2012-03-30T07:32:48Z 2010 Journal Article Journal of Peace Research 00223433 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5432 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article India
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	EN
topic	Conflict Conflict Resolution Alliances D740 Economics of Minorities and Races Non-labor Discrimination J150 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 Formal and Informal Sectors Shadow Economy Institutional Arrangements O170 Economic Sociology Economic Anthropology Social and Economic Stratification Z130
spellingShingle	Conflict Conflict Resolution Alliances D740 Economics of Minorities and Races Non-labor Discrimination J150 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 Formal and Informal Sectors Shadow Economy Institutional Arrangements O170 Economic Sociology Economic Anthropology Social and Economic Stratification Z130 Bohlken, Anjali Thomas Sergenti, Ernest John Economic Growth and Ethnic Violence : An Empirical Investigation of Hindu-Muslim Riots in India
geographic_facet	India
relation	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description	Most studies of Hindu-Muslim riots in India have tended to emphasize the effects of social, cultural, or political factors on the occurrence of ethnic violence. In this article, the authors focus on the relationship between economic conditions and riots. Specifically, this article examines the effect of economic growth on the outbreak of Hindu-Muslim riots in 15 Indian states between 1982 and 1995. Controlling for other factors, the authors find that just a 1% increase in the growth rate decreases the expected number of riots by over 5%. While short-term changes in growth influence the occurrence of riots, this study finds no evidence of a relationship between the levels of wealth in a state and the incidence of ethnic riots. Moreover, by including state fixed effects, the authors determine that the negative relationship found between economic growth and riots is driven primarily by the relationship between growth and riots within a state over time rather than across states. These results are robust to controlling for a number of other factors such as economic inequality, demographic variables, political competition, temporal lags, spillover effects from adjacent states, and year effects. Finally, to address potential concerns that economic growth could be a consequence rather than a cause of violence or that other unobserved factors could confound the relationship between economic growth and the occurrence of Hindu-Muslim riots, the authors also employ instrumental variables (IV) estimation, using percentage change in rainfall as an instrument for growth. The results with IV estimation are similar to the results with non-IV estimation in terms of sign and significance, indicating that the negative effect of economic growth on riots is not due to reverse causality or omitted variables bias.
format	Journal Article
author	Bohlken, Anjali Thomas Sergenti, Ernest John
author_facet	Bohlken, Anjali Thomas Sergenti, Ernest John
author_sort	Bohlken, Anjali Thomas
title	Economic Growth and Ethnic Violence : An Empirical Investigation of Hindu-Muslim Riots in India
title_short	Economic Growth and Ethnic Violence : An Empirical Investigation of Hindu-Muslim Riots in India
title_full	Economic Growth and Ethnic Violence : An Empirical Investigation of Hindu-Muslim Riots in India
title_fullStr	Economic Growth and Ethnic Violence : An Empirical Investigation of Hindu-Muslim Riots in India
title_full_unstemmed	Economic Growth and Ethnic Violence : An Empirical Investigation of Hindu-Muslim Riots in India
title_sort	economic growth and ethnic violence : an empirical investigation of hindu-muslim riots in india
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5432
_version_	1764395035281850368

Economic Growth and Ethnic Violence : An Empirical Investigation of Hindu-Muslim Riots in India

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