Replication Data for: Population Displacement and State-Building: The Legacies of Pashtun Resettlement in Afghanistan

Population displacement is a prominent state-building strategy. States sponsor the resettlement of racial, ethnic, or linguistic groups using either force or incentives to consolidate territorial control. We evaluate the long-run consequences of large-scale displacement analyzing a historical episode in Afghanistan: the relocation of Pashtun communities during the rule of Emir Abd-al Rahman. Using historical records, we reconstruct the map of relocated tribes to identify contemporary settlements that are connected to the original displaced settlements. We analyze novel, microlevel survey data on more than 80,000 subjects to study how contemporary attitudes towards the central government, the Taliban, and identity salience differ across co-ethnic communities separated by the Emir's state-building effort. We argue that under conditions that are common in many historical cases, settlers develop regional political identities that are neither ethnocentric, pro-central state, nor focused on national identity. We show that the long-term consequences of the state-led resettlement of Pashtuns to northern Afghanistan are stronger attachments to regional government and local institutions, with greater hostility towards the central government and the Taliban relative to Pashtuns in the south and east.