Abstract
2020, Paper, "In countries around the world, lack of food security might force migrants to risk traveling during the Covid-19 lockdowns. Using Facebook movement data, we demonstrate that a policy to guarantee food security, portable ration cards, is related to lower human mobility during India’s lockdown. Portable ration cards give inter-state migrants access to food when they move within a cluster of 12 states. We document 9.5% lower inter-state mobility originating from portable states than from other states. This effect is particularly strong for states that adopted portability five months earlier than other states, indicating that policy implementation needs lead time. We also find that activities by local ration shops, which can be viewed as an immediate-term response to food insecurity, is associated with reduced mobility."
Non-HKS Author Websites - Prithwiraj Choudhury & Tarun Khanna