Winning Hearts and Minds through Development: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Afghanistan

Date
-
Event Sponsor
The Munro Lectureship Fund and The Lane Center
Speaker

Fotini Christia, MIT

 

Abstract

Development programs have been increasingly used not only as an instrument for economic and political development, but also as a tool for counterinsurgency.  Using a large-scale randomized field experiment we assess the effect of the largest development program in Afghanistan on winning the hearts and minds of the embattled civilian population. We find that development aid leads to significant improvement in economic well-being as well as in attitudes towards the government. It also leads to an improved security situation in the long run. These positive effects of development aid on attitudes and security, however, are not observed in districts with high levels of initial violence suggesting that a certain minimum threshold of security has to be in place for the provision of goods and services to have an effect on winning over civilian support.

 

Biography

Fotini Christia joined the MIT faculty in the fall of 2008. She received her PhD in Public Policy at Harvard University, and has been a recipient of research fellowships from the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs among others. Her research interests deal with issues of ethnicity, conflict and cooperation in the Muslim world. Fotini has written opinion pieces on her experiences from Afghanistan, Iran, the West Bank and Gaza and Uzbekistan for Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe. She graduated magna cum laude with a joint BA in Economics-Operations Research from Columbia College and a Masters in International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.