Crime and human capital in India

Violent crime profoundly affects several socioeconomic outcomes. But does day-to-day crime also shape human capital accumulation? We answer this question in the Indian context by combining multiple years of district-level crime data with a representative survey on learning achievement of school-aged children. Our empirical strategy leverages the district-year variation in crime to estimate the crime-learning gradient. We find that an increase in violent crime is associated with lower achievement in reading and math, while non-violent crimes have no discernible correlation with learning outcomes. These associations hold similarly for boys and girls. Further, children from socioeconomically disadvantaged households show stronger negative associations. We document evidence that both household-level factors (reduced child mobility, lower adult engagement in work, and poorer mental health) and school-level factors (lower availability of teachers) are possible mechanisms underpinning these findings.