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Flows, leaks and blockages in informational interventions: A field experimental study of Bangalore's water sector

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  • Kumar, Tanu
  • Post, Alison E.
  • Ray, Isha

Abstract

Many policies and programs based on informational interventions hinge upon the assumption that providing citizens with information can help improve the quality of public services, or help citizens cope with poor services. We present a causal framework that can be used to identify leaks and blockages in the information production and dissemination process in such programs. We conceptualize the “information pipeline” as a series of connected nodes, each of which constitutes a possible point of blockage. We apply the framework to a field-experimental evaluation of a program that provided households in Bangalore, India, with advance notification of intermittently provided piped water. Our study detected no impacts on household wait times for water or on how citizens viewed the state, but found that notifications reduced stress. Our framework reveals that, in our case, noncompliance among human intermediaries and asymmetric gender relations contributed in large part to these null-to-modest results. Diagnostic frameworks like this should be used more extensively in development research to better understand the mechanisms responsible for program success and failure, to identify subgroups that actually received the intended treatment, and to identify potential leaks and blockages when replicating existing programs in new settings.

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  • Kumar, Tanu & Post, Alison E. & Ray, Isha, 2018. "Flows, leaks and blockages in informational interventions: A field experimental study of Bangalore's water sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 149-160.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:106:y:2018:i:c:p:149-160
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.01.022
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    Cited by:

    1. Satarupa Chakravarty & Sukanya Das & Saudamini Das, 2021. "Unreliable Public Water Supply and Coping Mechanisms of Low-Income Households in Delhi," IEG Working Papers 448, Institute of Economic Growth.
    2. Beard, Victoria A. & Mitlin, Diana, 2021. "Water access in global South cities: The challenges of intermittency and affordability," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    3. Kumar, Tanu & Post, Alison E. & Ray, Isha & Otsuka, Megan & Pardo-Bosch, Francesc, 2022. "From public service access to service quality: The distributive politics of piped water in Bangalore," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    4. Herrera, Veronica, 2019. "Reconciling global aspirations and local realities: Challenges facing the Sustainable Development Goals for water and sanitation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 106-117.
    5. Dunning, Thad & Grossman, Guy & Humphreys, Macartan & Hyde, Susan D. & McIntosh, Craig & Nellis, Gareth & Adida, Claire L. & Arias, Eric & Bicalho, Clara & Boas, Taylor C. & Buntaine, Mark T. & Chauch, 2019. "Voter information campaigns and political accountability: Cumulative findings from a preregistered meta-analysis of coordinated trials," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 5(7), pages 1-10.

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