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Abstract: How does ethnic violence and subsequent segregation shape children's lives? Using exogenous variation in communal violence due to a Hindu nationalist campaign tour across India, I show that violence displaces Muslims to segregated neighborhoods. Surprisingly, I find that post-event, Muslim primary education levels are higher in cities that were more susceptible to violence. For cohorts enrolling after the riots, the probability of attaining primary education decreases by 2.3% every 100 kilometers away from the campaign route. I exploit differences in the planned and actual route to show that this is due to residential segregation of communities threatened by violence.

Bio: Aarushi Kalra, is a PhD student in Economics at Brown, whose research interests include Political and Development Economics.  Kalra's current research deals with the causes and effects of communal tensions in India, with a focus on factors that lead to the production and propagation of hate speech on social media. She is co-founder of Bahujan Economists, a platform for students in Economics from under-represented communities. Prior to Brown, she completed her MA in Economics at the Delhi School of Economics, worked at the Center for Development Economics, and taught Quantitative Methods at the Institute of Economic growth, all in New Delhi.

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