Bayer, Patrick JGarlick, Robert JNyeki, Gabor2019-06-072021-05-212019https://hdl.handle.net/10161/18829<p>This dissertation explores questions in political economy and in development</p><p>economics. I ask and answer two research questions.</p><p>First, I look at whether peaceful or violent protests are more effective at</p><p>steering policy change. I study this question in the context of the US Civil</p><p>Rights Era, and evaluate the effects of protests on legislator votes in the</p><p>US House. I use a fixed-effects specification, and find that peaceful protests</p><p>caused a liberal shift and therefore were effective from the point of view of</p><p>the Civil Rights Movement but violent protests caused a conservative shift</p><p>and therefore backfired.</p><p>Second, I look at whether the structure of social networks in rural West-</p><p>ern Kenya is affected by a large development intervention. In joint work with</p><p>Robert Garlick and Kate Orkin, we evaluate the effects of a large unconditional</p><p>cash transfer and a psychological intervention. We cross-randomize</p><p>villages into these two interventions, and measure household interactions in</p><p>four types of networks: talking about goals, talking about challenges, giving</p><p>money or goods, and receiving money or goods. We estimate effects on total</p><p>link counts, measures of homophily, and measures of link intensity.</p>EconomicsDissertation