CAN WORKFARE PROGRAMS MODERATE CONFLICT? EVIDENCE FROM INDIA

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fetzer, Thiemo
• 署名单位: University of Warwick
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1542-4766
• DOI: 10.1093/jeea/jvz062
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 3337-3375
• 关键词: employment guarantee; economic shocks; civil conflict; VIOLENCE; insurgency; CORRUPTION; aid

摘要

Can public interventions persistently reduce conflict? Adverse weather shocks, through their impact on incomes, have been identified as robust drivers of conflict in many contexts. An effective social insurance system moderates the impact of adverse shocks on household incomes, and hence, could attenuate the link between these shocks and conflict. This paper shows that a public employment program in India, by providing an alternative source of income through a guarantee of 100 days of employment at minimum wages, effectively provides insurance. This has an indirect pacifying effect. By weakening the link between productivity shocks and incomes, the program uncouples productivity shocks from conflict, leading persistently lower conflict levels.