As part of the Brown Bag Lunch series, the International Economics Department at the Graduate Institute is pleased to invite you to a public talk given by Siddhant Marur, PhD student in Development Economics.

ICT in an Insurgency: The Case of Kashmir
The effect of telecommunications on political violence

Abstract: How do improvements in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) affect armed conflict and political mobilization? In the face of ambiguous a priori predictions, empirical evidence suggests competing possibilities- improving ICT has been shown to have a dampening effect in Iraq but an enhancing one in Africa. I use a novel, open source geo-referenced dataset on cell towers (2009-18) along with event data on armed conflict and protests to provide preliminary evidence on the effects of ICT on the on-going conflict in Kashmir, India. I find a positive impact of introducing cell towers on political mobilization albeit a negative impact on armed conflict. This work contributes to the literature by providing the first sub-national test of ICT's impact in a unique setting: an active insurgency bolstered by a disenfranchised citizenry.