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Conflict and Gender Norms: Evidence from India

Where do gender norms that favour men come from? While the status of women in India has its origins in part in son preference, the proposed explanations of son preference in the literature, such as cultivation of rice and wheat and women’s participation in these activities are often poor predictors of sex ratios (Fenske, Gupta, and Neumann, 2022).

In this Quantitative History Webinar, Bishnupriya Gupta of the University of Warwick will present her latest research using pre-colonial conflict exposure for each district of modern India and several data sources on the status of women, including colonial and modern censuses, Demographic and Health Surveys, and data on crimes against women. Bishnupriya and her team find that conditional on geographic controls and state-fixed effects, greater pre-colonial conflict predicts: More male-biased sex ratios, in particular among “other backward class” Hindus today and more missing women in the population in 2011. They also find more crimes against women in recent administrative data. Conflict exposure predicts lower female shares in 1931. They argue that the mechanism is old and operates throughout the life cycle. They confirm these results using an instrument based on proximity to the Khyber Pass, “the most important highway to India”. The results survive controlling for centuries of foreign conquest, direct rule, language, and religion.

Bishnupriya’s co-authors: This study is based on joint work with Mark Dincecco (Michigan), James Fenske (Warwick) and Anil Menon (Cornell)

Discussant: Heng Chen (HKU Business School)

Live on Zoom on May 11, 2023
16:00 Hong Kong/Beijing/Singapore
09:00 London | 17:00 Tokyo | 18:00 Sydney

The Quantitative History (QH) Webinar Series aims to provide researchers, teachers, and students with an online intellectual platform to keep up to date with the latest research in the field, promoting the dissemination of research findings and interdisciplinary use of quantitative methods in historical research. The QH Webinar Series, now entering its fourth year, is co-organized by Centre for Quantitative History at the HKU Business School and International Society for Quantitative History in partnership with Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences. The Series is now substantially supported by the Areas of Excellence (AoE) Scheme from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. [AoE/B-704/22-R]). 量化歷史網上講座系列由香港大學陳志武和馬馳騁教授聯合發起，旨在介紹前沿量化歷史研究成果、促進同仁交流，推廣量化方法在歷史研究中的應用。本系列講座由香港大學經管學院量化歷史研究中心和國際量化歷史學會承辦，及香港人文社會研究所全力支持。從2023年開始，系列得到中國香港特別行政區研究資助局卓越學科領域計劃的重要資助 (項目編號[AoE/B-704/22-R])。

Conveners:
Professor Zhiwu Chen
Dr. Chicheng Ma