Professor Sonia Bhalotra’s seminar investigates the impact of Muslim political representation in India’s state assemblies on religious conflict in the district from which they are elected using unique data for the period 1980-2007. She finds that raising Muslim political representation results in a sizeable decline in the incidence of Hindu-Muslim riots in close-election districts, consistent with evidence that Muslims are more often the victims of such incidents.
The findings are consistent with parochial politics and with recent models of democracy that indicate the relevance of political identity for policy outcomes. They also suggest a solution for the control of conflict that has not been previously considered in the conflict literature.
About the Speaker:
Sonia Bhalotra is Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Bristol. She currently has research programmes on the persistent impacts of early life health interventions and the political economy of public service delivery. Individual papers deliver results pertinent to political identity, health and welfare reform, the intergenerational transmission of human capital and poverty, and the dynamics of mortality, fertility and sex selection.
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