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Social Proximity and Bureaucrat Performance: Evidence from India

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  • Bertrand, Marianne

Abstract

Using exogenous variation in social proximity generated by an allocation rule, we find that bureaucrats assigned to their home states are perceived to be more corrupt and less able to withstand illegitimate political pressure. Despite this, we observe that home officers are more likely to be promoted in the later stages of their careers. To understand this dissonance between performance and promotion we show that incoming Chief Ministers preferentially promote home officers that come from the same home district. Taken together, our results suggest that social proximity hampers bureaucrat performance by facilitating political capture and corruption.

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  • Bertrand, Marianne, 2019. "Social Proximity and Bureaucrat Performance: Evidence from India," CEPR Discussion Papers 13562, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13562
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    5. Agnihotri, Anustubh, 2022. "Transfer preferences of bureaucrats and spatial disparities in local state presence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social proximity; Bureaucrat performance; Performance and promotion; Political economy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General

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