Organized intergroup violence is almost universally modeled as a calculated act motivated by econ... more Organized intergroup violence is almost universally modeled as a calculated act motivated by economic factors. In contrast, it is generally assumed that non-economic factors, such as an individual's emotional state, play a role in many types of interpersonal violence, such as "crimes of passion." We ask whether economic or non-economic factors better explain the well-established relationship between temperature and violence in a unique context where intergroup killings by drug-trafficking organizations (DTOs) and "normal" interpersonal homicides are separately documented. A constellation of evidence, including the limited influence of a cash transfer program as well as comparison with both non-violent DTO crime and suicides, indicate that economic factors only partially explain the observed relationship between temperature and violence. We argue that non-economic psychological and physiological factors that are affected by temperature, modeled here as a "...
We evaluate the impact of an educational program that aims to build inter-ethnic cohesion in scho... more We evaluate the impact of an educational program that aims to build inter-ethnic cohesion in schools by developing perspective-taking ability in children. The program takes place in southeastern Turkey, a high-stakes context in which there has been a massive influx of refugees. We measure outcomes that are fundamental to economic interactions and social cohesion, including peer violence, social exclusion, and prosocial behavior. Using randomized variation in program implementation, we find that the program significantly lowers peer violence and victimization on school grounds. It also reduces social exclusion and ethnic segregation in the classroom, measured by inter-ethnic friendship ties. We find that the program is highly effective in enhancing prosocial behavior: Treated students exhibit significantly higher trust, reciprocity, and altruism toward each other. Our results suggest that well-targeted educational strategies can go a long way in building social capital, even in socio...
We use a unique dataset on daily labor-market outcomes for Indian casual workers to study labor r... more We use a unique dataset on daily labor-market outcomes for Indian casual workers to study labor reallocation between agricultural and non-agricultural activities within rural areas. We use workers who switch sectors during a period of one to two weeks to estimate an agricultural wage gap that cannot be due to selection on unobservable characteristics. Workers can obtain 21 percent higher wages by taking non-agricultural jobs, many of which are available inside their villages. Surveys reveal that non-agricultural jobs are less preferred because they are harder, suggesting that the agricultural wage gap in rural areas might reflect a compensating differential.
1Dept. of Earth System Science, Stanford University 2Center on Food Security and the Environment,... more 1Dept. of Earth System Science, Stanford University 2Center on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford University 3National Bureau of Economic Research 4Department of Economics, PUC Chile 5Department of Economics, University of British Columbia 6Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Berkeley 7Department of Medicine, Stanford University 8Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley. ∗Corresponding author: mburke@stanford.edu, 650-721-2203
1Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. 2Center on Food Secu... more 1Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. 2Center on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. 3National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, USA. 4Instituto de Economia, Pontificia Univerdad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. 5Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. 6Department of Economics, University of Essex, Colchester, UK. 7Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. ✉e-mail: mburke@stanford.edu We thank Gammans1 for his careful replication of our work and engagement on this topic. Gammans is sceptical of our claim2 that future climate change might increase suicide risk, arguing that our data suggest that temperature increases merely hasten suicides that would have occurred soon after, and that our estimates represent the impact of ‘weather’ rather than ‘climate’. We address these concerns in order. There are ...
Organized intergroup violence is almost universally modeled as a calculated act motivated by econ... more Organized intergroup violence is almost universally modeled as a calculated act motivated by economic factors. In contrast, it is generally assumed that non-economic factors, such as an individual’s emotional state, play a role in many types of interpersonal violence, such as “crimes of passion.” We ask whether non-economic factors can also explain the well-established relationship between temperature and violence in a unique context where intergroup killings by drug-trafficking organizations (DTOs) and other interpersonal homicides are separately documented. A constellation of evidence, including the limited influence of a cash transfer program as well as comparisons with both other DTO crime and suicides, indicate that economic factors only partially mitigate the relationship between temperature and violence that we estimate in Mexico. We argue that non-economic psychological and physiological factors that are affected by temperature, modeled here as a “taste for violence,” likely play an important role in causing both interpersonal and intergroup violence.
Organized intergroup violence is almost universally modeled as a calculated act motivated by econ... more Organized intergroup violence is almost universally modeled as a calculated act motivated by economic factors. In contrast, it is generally assumed that non-economic factors, such as an individual's emotional state, play a role in many types of interpersonal violence, such as "crimes of passion." We ask whether economic or non-economic factors better explain the well-established relationship between temperature and violence in a unique context where intergroup killings by drug-trafficking organizations (DTOs) and "normal" interpersonal homicides are separately documented. A constellation of evidence, including the limited influence of a cash transfer program as well as comparison with both non-violent DTO crime and suicides, indicate that economic factors only partially explain the observed relationship between temperature and violence. We argue that non-economic psychological and physiological factors that are affected by temperature, modeled here as a "...
We evaluate the impact of an educational program that aims to build inter-ethnic cohesion in scho... more We evaluate the impact of an educational program that aims to build inter-ethnic cohesion in schools by developing perspective-taking ability in children. The program takes place in southeastern Turkey, a high-stakes context in which there has been a massive influx of refugees. We measure outcomes that are fundamental to economic interactions and social cohesion, including peer violence, social exclusion, and prosocial behavior. Using randomized variation in program implementation, we find that the program significantly lowers peer violence and victimization on school grounds. It also reduces social exclusion and ethnic segregation in the classroom, measured by inter-ethnic friendship ties. We find that the program is highly effective in enhancing prosocial behavior: Treated students exhibit significantly higher trust, reciprocity, and altruism toward each other. Our results suggest that well-targeted educational strategies can go a long way in building social capital, even in socio...
We use a unique dataset on daily labor-market outcomes for Indian casual workers to study labor r... more We use a unique dataset on daily labor-market outcomes for Indian casual workers to study labor reallocation between agricultural and non-agricultural activities within rural areas. We use workers who switch sectors during a period of one to two weeks to estimate an agricultural wage gap that cannot be due to selection on unobservable characteristics. Workers can obtain 21 percent higher wages by taking non-agricultural jobs, many of which are available inside their villages. Surveys reveal that non-agricultural jobs are less preferred because they are harder, suggesting that the agricultural wage gap in rural areas might reflect a compensating differential.
1Dept. of Earth System Science, Stanford University 2Center on Food Security and the Environment,... more 1Dept. of Earth System Science, Stanford University 2Center on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford University 3National Bureau of Economic Research 4Department of Economics, PUC Chile 5Department of Economics, University of British Columbia 6Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Berkeley 7Department of Medicine, Stanford University 8Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley. ∗Corresponding author: mburke@stanford.edu, 650-721-2203
1Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. 2Center on Food Secu... more 1Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. 2Center on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. 3National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, USA. 4Instituto de Economia, Pontificia Univerdad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. 5Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. 6Department of Economics, University of Essex, Colchester, UK. 7Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. ✉e-mail: mburke@stanford.edu We thank Gammans1 for his careful replication of our work and engagement on this topic. Gammans is sceptical of our claim2 that future climate change might increase suicide risk, arguing that our data suggest that temperature increases merely hasten suicides that would have occurred soon after, and that our estimates represent the impact of ‘weather’ rather than ‘climate’. We address these concerns in order. There are ...
Organized intergroup violence is almost universally modeled as a calculated act motivated by econ... more Organized intergroup violence is almost universally modeled as a calculated act motivated by economic factors. In contrast, it is generally assumed that non-economic factors, such as an individual’s emotional state, play a role in many types of interpersonal violence, such as “crimes of passion.” We ask whether non-economic factors can also explain the well-established relationship between temperature and violence in a unique context where intergroup killings by drug-trafficking organizations (DTOs) and other interpersonal homicides are separately documented. A constellation of evidence, including the limited influence of a cash transfer program as well as comparisons with both other DTO crime and suicides, indicate that economic factors only partially mitigate the relationship between temperature and violence that we estimate in Mexico. We argue that non-economic psychological and physiological factors that are affected by temperature, modeled here as a “taste for violence,” likely play an important role in causing both interpersonal and intergroup violence.
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