Implications of an Economic Theory of Conflict: Hindu-Muslim Violence in India / Anirban Mitra, Debraj Ray.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mitra, Anirban.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Ray, Debraj.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w19090.

NBER working paper series no. w19090

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2013.

Summary:

We model inter-group conflict driven by economic changes within groups. We show that if group incomes are low, increasing group incomes raises violence against that group, and lowers violence generated by it. We then apply the model to data on Hindu-Muslim violence in India. Our main result is that an increase in per-capita Muslim expenditures generates a large and significant increase in future religious conflict. An increase in Hindu expenditures has negative or no effect. These findings speak to the origins of Hindu-Muslim violence in post-Independence India.

Notes:

Print version record

May 2013.