IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v152y2025ics0264999325001725.html

Do educated leaders perform better? Evidence on parliamentary effort and constituency outcomes in India

Author

Listed:
  • Jaiswal, Shubhangi

Abstract

We investigate whether higher educational attainment among elected representatives improves legislative performance and constituency outcomes. Using a Regression Discontinuity Design on close parliamentary elections in India (2009–2023), we compare Members of Parliament (MPs) with postgraduate degrees to those without. Postgraduate MPs ask 126 more questions, participate in 30 more debates, introduce one additional private member’s bill, and attend parliament 6 percentage points more often. They also raise 15 more questions on economic and financial affairs. Constituencies represented by postgraduate MPs see better development outcomes: 7.7 percentage points greater access to clean cooking fuel, 8 percentage points decrease in anaemia among women, and 12 percentage points growth in internet penetration. The results are robust to controls for MP and constituency characteristics. These findings suggest that formal education enhances both legislative effort and local development, reinforcing the role of educated leadership in improving governance and strengthening democratic institutions in developing democracies.

Suggested Citation

  • Jaiswal, Shubhangi, 2025. "Do educated leaders perform better? Evidence on parliamentary effort and constituency outcomes in India," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:152:y:2025:i:c:s0264999325001725
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2025.107177
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999325001725
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2025.107177?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christian Staat & Colin R. Kuehnhanss, 2017. "Outside Earnings, Electoral Systems and Legislative Effort in the European Parliament," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 368-386, March.
    2. Banerjee, Abhijit V. & Pande, Rohini, 2007. "Parochial Politics: Ethnic Preferences and Politician Corruption," Working Paper Series rwp07-031, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    3. Rafael Di Tella & Randy Kotti & Caroline Le Pennec & Vincent Pons, 2025. "Keep Your Enemies Closer: Strategic Platform Adjustments during US and French Elections," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 115(8), pages 2488-2528, August.
    4. Timothy Besley & Rohini Pande & Vijayendra Rao, 2005. "Political Selection and the Quality of Government: Evidence from South India," STICERD - Political Economy and Public Policy Paper Series 08, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    5. Jain, Chandan & Kashyap, Shagun & Lahoti, Rahul & Sahoo, Soham, 2023. "The impact of educated leaders on economic development: Evidence from India," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 1068-1093.
    6. Thomas Braendle, 2015. "Does remuneration affect the discipline and the selection of politicians? Evidence from pay harmonization in the European Parliament," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 162(1), pages 1-24, January.
    7. Sam Asher & Tobias Lunt & Ryu Matsuura & Paul Novosad, 2021. "Development Research at High Geographic Resolution: An Analysis of Night-Lights, Firms, and Poverty in India Using the SHRUG Open Data Platform," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 35(4), pages 845-871.
    8. John Gibson, 2021. "Better Night Lights Data, For Longer," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 83(3), pages 770-791, June.
    9. Timothy Besley & Jose G. Montalvo & Marta Reynal‐Querol, 2011. "Do Educated Leaders Matter?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(554), pages 205-205, August.
    10. Besley, Timothy & Reynal-Querol, Marta, 2011. "Do Democracies Select More Educated Leaders?," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 105(3), pages 552-566, August.
    11. Sebastian Calonico & Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocio Titiunik, 2014. "Robust Nonparametric Confidence Intervals for Regression‐Discontinuity Designs," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82, pages 2295-2326, November.
    12. Gehring, Kai & Kauffeldt, T. Florian & Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya, 2019. "Crime, incentives and political effort: Evidence from India," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1-20.
    13. McCrary, Justin, 2008. "Manipulation of the running variable in the regression discontinuity design: A density test," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 698-714, February.
    14. Chauvin, Juan Pablo & Tricaud, Clemence, 2022. "Gender and Electoral Incentives: Evidence from Crisis Response," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 12411, Inter-American Development Bank.
    15. Naci Mocan & Duha T. Altindag, 2013. "Salaries and Work Effort: An Analysis of the European Union Parliamentarians," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 123(12), pages 1130-1167, December.
    16. Vernon Henderson & Adam Storeygard & David N. Weil, 2011. "A Bright Idea for Measuring Economic Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 194-199, May.
    17. Ronny Freier & Sebastian Thomasius, 2016. "Voters prefer more qualified mayors, but does it matter for public finances? Evidence for Germany," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(5), pages 875-910, October.
    18. Prakash, Nishith & Rockmore, Marc & Uppal, Yogesh, 2019. "Do criminally accused politicians affect economic outcomes? Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    19. Santosh Anagol & Thomas Fujiwara, 2016. "The Runner-Up Effect," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(4), pages 927-991.
    20. Hasanov, Rashad & Bhattacharya, Prasad Sankar, 2019. "Do political factors influence banking crisis?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 305-318.
    21. Dreher, Axel & Lamla, Michael J. & Lein, Sarah M. & Somogyi, Frank, 2009. "The impact of political leaders' profession and education on reforms," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 169-193, March.
    22. Sam Asher & Paul Novosad, 2017. "Politics and Local Economic Growth: Evidence from India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 229-273, January.
    23. Timothy Besley & Rohini Pande & Vijayendra Rao, 2005. "Political Selection and the Quality of Government: Evidence from South India," STICERD - Political Economy and Public Policy Paper Series 08, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    24. Yuya Kudo, 2023. "Eradicating female genital cutting: implications from political efforts in Burkina Faso," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 75(1), pages 183-205.
    25. Wang, Zhao & He, Yali & Jiang, Tianqi, 2024. "Does the gender composition of local governments matter for firms’ information environment? Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    26. Somani, Ravi, 2021. "The returns to higher education and public employment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    27. François, Abel & Panel, Sophie & Weill, Laurent, 2020. "Educated dictators attract more foreign direct investment," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 37-55.
    28. Sam Asher & Paul Novosad, 2023. "Rent-Seeking and Criminal Politicians: Evidence from Mining Booms," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(1), pages 20-39, January.
    29. Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocío Titiunik & Gonzalo Vazquez-Bare, 2020. "Analysis of regression-discontinuity designs with multiple cutoffs or multiple scores," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 20(4), pages 866-891, December.
    30. Makkar, Karan, 2023. "Defector Politicians and Economic Growth: Evidence from India," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    31. Ming Lu & Lijun Xia & Jinchuan Xiao, 2019. "Pro‐social leadership under authoritarianism : Provincial leaders’ educational backgrounds and fiscal expenditure structure in China," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 27(1), pages 5-30, January.
    32. Gibson, John & Olivia, Susan & Boe-Gibson, Geua & Li, Chao, 2021. "Which night lights data should we use in economics, and where?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    33. Lahoti, Rahul & Sahoo, Soham, 2020. "Are educated leaders good for education? Evidence from India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 42-62.
    34. Benjamin F. Jones & Benjamin A. Olken, 2005. "Do Leaders Matter? National Leadership and Growth Since World War II," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(3), pages 835-864.
    35. Keefer, Philip & Khemani, Stuti, 2009. "When Do Legislators Pass on Pork? The Role of Political Parties in Determining Legislator Effort," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 103(1), pages 99-112, February.
    36. Matias D. Cattaneo & Michael Jansson & Xinwei Ma, 2018. "Manipulation testing based on density discontinuity," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 18(1), pages 234-261, March.
    37. Lee, David S., 2008. "Randomized experiments from non-random selection in U.S. House elections," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 675-697, February.
    38. Guido Imbens & Karthik Kalyanaraman, 2012. "Optimal Bandwidth Choice for the Regression Discontinuity Estimator," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(3), pages 933-959.
    39. Li, Jingheng & Xi, Tianyang & Yao, Yang, 2020. "Empowering knowledge: Political leaders, education, and economic liberalization," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    40. Saibal Ghosh, 2018. "An index of legislators’ performance: evidence from Indian parliamentary data," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 20(1), pages 129-151, April.
    41. Andrew Gelman & Guido Imbens, 2019. "Why High-Order Polynomials Should Not Be Used in Regression Discontinuity Designs," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 447-456, July.
    42. Baskaran, Thushyanthan & Min, Brian & Uppal, Yogesh, 2015. "Election cycles and electricity provision: Evidence from a quasi-experiment with Indian special elections," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 64-73.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jain, Chandan & Kashyap, Shagun & Lahoti, Rahul & Sahoo, Soham, 2023. "The impact of educated leaders on economic development: Evidence from India," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 1068-1093.
    2. Jain, Chandan & Kashyap, Shagun & Lahoti, Rahul & Sahoo, Soham, 2022. "Do Educated Leaders Affect Economic Development? Evidence from India," IZA Discussion Papers 15278, IZA Network @ LISER.
    3. Somdeep Chatterjee & Pushkar Maitra & Manhar Manchanda, 2024. "The Relevant Third: Threat of Coalition and Economic Development," Monash Economics Working Papers 2024-13, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    4. Shreya Biswas & Upasak Das & Sandhya Garg, 2024. "Growing with greener pastures: Examining the role of graduate politicians on forest cover in India," IEG Working Papers 463, Institute of Economic Growth.
    5. Lahoti, Rahul & Sahoo, Soham, 2020. "Are educated leaders good for education? Evidence from India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 42-62.
    6. Makkar, Karan, 2023. "Defector Politicians and Economic Growth: Evidence from India," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    7. Chitra Jogani, 2022. "Effect of Political Quotas on Attributes of Political Candidates and Provision of Public Goods," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 267-316, April.
    8. Prakash, Nishith & Rockmore, Marc & Uppal, Yogesh, 2019. "Do criminally accused politicians affect economic outcomes? Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    9. Thushyanthan Baskaran & Sonia Bhalotra & Brian Min & Yogesh Uppal, 2024. "Women legislators and economic performance," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 151-214, June.
    10. Kalliyil, Muneer & Sahoo, Soham, 2026. "The political economy of privatization of education: Role of local politicians in India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    11. Kukreja, Rolly, 2024. "The political economy of education: Politician criminality and higher education institutions," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    12. Paul Pelzl & Steven Poelhekke, 2023. "Democratization, leader education and growth: firm-level evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 571-600, December.
    13. Taneesha Datta, 2025. "Political representation and judicial outcomes: Eidence from India," CSAE Working Paper Series 2025-11, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    14. Baskaran, Thushyanthan & Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Min, Brian & Uppal, Yogesh, 2018. "Women Legislators and Economic Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 11596, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Anil, Deepthi Sara & Sahoo, Soham & Pakrashi, Debayan, 2025. "Do educated politicians facilitate better public health? Evidence from India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 366(C).
    16. Benedetto Marco Alberto De & Paola Maria De, 2017. "Candidates’ Education and Turnout: Evidence from Italyn Municipal Elections," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 18(1), pages 22-50, February.
    17. Meriläinen, Jaakko & Tukiainen, Janne, 2016. "Primary Effect in Open-List Elections," Working Papers 79, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    18. Chauvin, Juan Pablo & Tricaud, Clemence, 2022. "Gender and Electoral Incentives: Evidence from Crisis Response," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 12411, Inter-American Development Bank.
    19. Hyytinen, Ari & Meriläinen, Jaakko & Saarimaa, Tuukka & Toivanen, Otto & Tukiainen, Janne, 2018. "Public Employees as Politicians: Evidence from Close Elections," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 112(1), pages 68-81, February.
    20. Prakash, Nishith & Sahoo, Soham & Saraswat, Deepak & Sindhi, Reetika, 2022. "When Criminality Begets Crime: The Role of Elected Politicians in India," IZA Discussion Papers 15259, IZA Network @ LISER.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • P0 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - General
    • I0 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • P47 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Performance and Prospects
    • P48 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:152:y:2025:i:c:s0264999325001725. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.