Calamity, conflict, and cash transfers: How violence affects access to aid in Pakistan
- Economic Development And Cultural Change
- 68(4), Jul, 2020: p.1131-1184
I examine how exposure to conflict affected household-level access to cash transfers after the 2010 floods in Pakistan. Using instrumental variables estimation to overcome the endogeneity of conflict exposure and access to aid, I find that conflict reduced households’ access to two large government-run cash transfer programs— namely, the Citizens Damage Compensation Program and the Benazir Income Support Program —but had no effect on nonstate transfers. These effects are driven by the likely presence of the Taliban and affiliate groups, suggesting that attempts to deepen state presence in contested areas through public cash transfers may be resisted by rebel groups, resulting in lower coverage. – Reproduced