Religious Fractionalisation and Crimes in Disaster-Affected Communities: Survey Evidence from Bangladesh

Shoji, Masahiro (2017): Religious Fractionalisation and Crimes in Disaster-Affected Communities: Survey Evidence from Bangladesh.

Abstract

This study employs unique household data collected in cyclone-affected communities in Bangladesh to uncover the impact of religious fractionalisation on victimization to crime after the disaster. The identification strategy relies on two natures of the study area: 1) the religious composition is stable; and 2) the pre-disaster socio-economic status of households is uncorrelated with religious fractionalisation and disaster damage, after controlling for the observed characteristics. The findings suggest that following a natural disaster, households in disaster-affected and religiously fractionalised communities are more likely to be victims than those in non-fractionalised communities. This is caused by the misallocation of disaster reliefs in fractionalised communities.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: crime, religious fractionalisation, natural disaster, Bangladesh
• Subjects: K - Law and Economics > K4 - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior > K42 - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O12 - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z12 - Religion

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