Happening @ Michigan https://events.umich.edu/group/3557/rss RSS Feed for Happening @ Michigan Events at the University of Michigan. Effects of Caste-Based Affirmative Action in Governance on Socioeconomic Networks and Resource Provision (March 28, 2024 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/117999 117999-21840336@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, March 28, 2024 4:00pm
Location: Lorch Hall
Organized By: Economic Development Seminar

We study the impacts of political affirmative action for historically disadvantaged caste groups in Bihar, India on village social and economic networks. To estimate the causal impacts of the policy, we conduct surveys in communities around the discontinuity in the state government’s policy assignment rule. We find that the marginal constituency assigned to the reservation policy experiences a drop in cross-caste network links and an increase in homophily. Consistent with increased homophily, reservation leads to less social learning when information is introduced to the community. While reservation is active, we find no change in the salience of caste concerns and no shifts in beliefs about trustworthiness, competence, or work ethic, among others, across caste. Finally, consistent with prior work, reservation improves access to redistribution schemes. Both lower and upper castes benefit, indicating no crowd-out at the expense of upper castes.

This talk is presented by the Economic Development Seminar, sponsored in part by the Department of Economics through a generous gift given by Jay and Beth Rakow. This talk is also sponsored by the International Policy Center at the Ford School.

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Workshop / Seminar Thu, 21 Mar 2024 08:48:06 -0400 2024-03-28T16:00:00-04:00 2024-03-28T17:20:00-04:00 Lorch Hall Economic Development Seminar Workshop / Seminar Effects of Caste-Based Affirmative Action in Governance on Socioeconomic Networks and Resource Provision
Measuring Religion from Behavior: Economic Adversity, State Control and Religious Adherence in Afghanistan (April 2, 2024 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/118000 118000-21840337@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, April 2, 2024 1:00pm
Location: Haven Hall
Organized By: Economic Development Seminar

Religious adherence has been hard to study in part because it is hard to measure. We develop a new measure of religious adherence, which is granular in both time and space, using anonymized mobile phone logs. We use this measure to shed light on the nature of religious practice in Islamic societies. First, we show that religious adherence rises sharply when districts in Afghanistan fall under Taliban control. Second, when climate shocks create adverse economic conditions, people become more religiously observant -- particularly in unirrigated areas where climate matters most to agricultural production. More broadly, our results indicate that economic and political adversity cause individuals to become more religiously adherent.


This talk is presented jointly by the Political Economy Workshop (PEW) and the Economic Development Seminar, sponsored in part by the Department of Economics through a generous gift given by Jay and Beth Rakow. This talk is also sponsored by the International Policy Center at the Ford School.

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Workshop / Seminar Thu, 21 Mar 2024 12:47:31 -0400 2024-04-02T13:00:00-04:00 2024-04-02T14:30:00-04:00 Haven Hall Economic Development Seminar Workshop / Seminar Measuring Religion from Behavior: Economic Adversity, State Control and Religious Adherence in Afghanistan