Monday April 10, Economics Seminar on Civil Conflict in Nepal

From Professor Jonathan Conning:

Hi everyone,

This is just a reminder, Monday's talk by Karen Macours should be interesting to anybody interested in development and political economy, and given how Nepal has been in the news lately, it's a timely topic:

Karen Macours from Johns Hopkins/SAIS, Washington DC

http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/RePEc/seminar/Nepal_civilconflict_apr606.pdf

Abstract:

This paper investigates the relationship between relative deprivation and the escalation of the civil conflict in Nepal. Poverty in Nepal increased substantially between 1995 and 2003, which seems puzzling given the political instability and the rise and strengthening of the insurgency. We hypothesize that increasing differences in welfare among different groups - i.e., relative deprivation as opposed to absolute deprivation - can help explain this puzzle. The hypothesis is tested with data from 2 national-representative household surveys, matched with information regarding mass abductions by the Maoists, obtained from an extensive search of newspaper articles. The identification strategy relies on the fact that the months following finalization of the second round of data collection were characterized by a strengthening of the insurgency and a geographical escalation of the conflict. The paper shows that households with relatively large land holdings have gained disproportionally from recent growth, resulting in relative deprivation of the (near) landless. Recruiting by Maoists through abduction of young people is found to be more important in districts where inequality between the landed and the landless had increased.

As usual the seminar schedule is at: http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/RePEc/seminar/

Thanks