Mandatory CSR Allocation and Rainfall Shocks: Evidence from Indian Districts

Sammanfattning

This paper studies whether India's mandatory CSR regime reallocates geographically toward districts experiencing adverse monsoon rainfall shocks, using data from 605 Indian districts for 2016-2023. A drought is associated with approximately 11 to 14 percent higher CSR spending in the following year. The corresponding excess-rain response is positive but smaller and not consistently significant. The drought response is concentrated in poorer districts, approximately doubling at one standard deviation above mean multidimensional poverty. State-assembly elections held in the second half of the year are independently associated with higher CSR spending, and the lagged drought effect survives controls for election timing. The effect does not extend to per-resident or aggregate CSR spending and is sensitive to specification. These findings suggest that mandatory CSR in India responds to monsoon shocks partially and with delay, with the response concentrated in poorer districts and operating mainly through drought.