Articles:

Dasgupta, Aditya and Elena Ruiz Ramirez. 2024. "Explaining Rural Conservatism: Political Consequences of Technological Change in the Great Plains".  American Political Science Review.  https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055424000200 

Abstract: Rural areas are conservative electoral strongholds in the United States and other advanced capitalist economies. But this was not always the case. What explains the historical rise of rural conservatism? This paper examines how technological change transformed not only agriculture but rural political preferences during the twentieth century.

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Media/Blogs: [Broadstreet][Wikipedia][Reddit][APSA Public Scholarship][Boston Globe][LSE USAPP]

Awards: 2021 Franklin Burdette/Pi Sigma Alpha Prize for Best Paper presented at the APSA annual meeting

Dasgupta, Aditya and Daniel Ziblatt. 2022. Capital Meets Democracy: The Impact of Franchise Extension on Sovereign Bond Markets. American Journal of Political Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12585 

Abstract: By empowering poor voters, did the emergence of democracy pose a risk to concentrated wealth held in the form of financial capital? We study the reaction of the sovereign bond market to franchise reforms in Europe and the Americas, 1800-1920. 

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Media/Blogs: [Broadstreet][Twitter][WeChat]

Awards: Honorable Mention, Best Article Published in AJPS, 2022. 

Dasgupta, Aditya and Devesh Kapur.  2020. The Political Economy of Bureaucratic Overload: Evidence from Rural Development Officials in India, American Political Science Review. Vol 114 (4): 1316-1334. 

Abstract: Drawing on a survey of rural development officials, including time-usage diaries which measure their behavior, this paper studies the political economy and bureaucratic behavior underpinning weak local state capacity. 

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Media/Blogs: [Hindustan Times][India Today][Twitter]

Dasgupta, Aditya. 2018. Technological Change and Political Turnover: The Democratizing Effects of the Green Revolution in India. American Political Science Review. Vol 112 (4)  pp. 918-938. 

Abstract: Can technological change, as a form of “creative destruction”, contribute to political turnover? This paper investigates a large-scale historical natural experiment in rural India: the impact of the green revolution.

Access: [preprint][journal website][appendix][replication data]

Media/Blogs: [LiveMint][The Print] [Ideas for India][Broadstreet]

 Awards: 2019 Best Article Award, APSA Comparative Democratization Section; 2019 Evan Ringquist Best Article Award, APSA Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics Section

Dasgupta, Aditya, Kishore Gawande, and Devesh Kapur. 2017.  (When) Do Anti-poverty Programs Reduce Violence? India’s Rural Employment Guarantee and Maoist Conflict. International Organization. Vol. 71 (3): pp.605-32. 

Abstract: Drawing on a policy experiment, we demonstrate that anti-poverty programs can mitigate civil conflict, but also highlight the role of state capacity in shaping these effects.

Access: [preprint][journal website][appendix][replication data]

Media/Blogs: [InsTED]

Dasgupta, Aditya and Daniel Ziblatt. 2015. How did Britain Democratize? Views from the Sovereign Bond Market. The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 75 (1): pp.1-29. 

Abstract: To assess competing theories of democratization, we analyze British sovereign bond market responses to the Great Reform Acts.

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Other writing:

Dasgupta, Aditya. 2024. "Natural Experiments and Historical Social Science" in Causal Inference and American Political Development, ed. Jeffrey Jenkins, Springer Press. 

Abstract:I consider the promise and pitfalls of using natural experiments, in light of lessons learned from historical political economy (HPE), where the ‘credibility revolution’ has made significant inroads 

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Dasgupta, Aditya. 2020. "Democracy without Capacity?" in Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, 42 (1): pp. 1-3. 

Abstract: This essay argues, drawing on the case of India, that democracy without adequate state capacity results in several pathologies, including democratic dysfunction and a temptation toward authoritarian populism. 

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