IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/16158.html

Leader identity and coordination

Author

Listed:
  • Bhalotra, Sonia
  • Vecci, Joseph
  • Iyer, Lakshmi
  • Clots Figueras, Irma

Abstract

This paper examines policy effectiveness as a function of leader identity. We experimentally vary leader religious identity in a coordination game implemented in India, and focus upon citizen reactions to leader identity, controlling for leader actions. We find that minority leaders improve coordination, while majority leaders do not. Alternative treatment arms reveal that affirmative action for minorities reverses this result, while intergroup contact improves the effectiveness of leaders of both identities. We also find that minority leaders are less effective in towns with a history of intergroup conflict. Our results demonstrate that leader and policy effectiveness depend upon citizen reactions, conditioned by social identity and past conflict.

Suggested Citation

  • Bhalotra, Sonia & Vecci, Joseph & Iyer, Lakshmi & Clots Figueras, Irma, 2021. "Leader identity and coordination," CEPR Discussion Papers 16158, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:16158
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP16158
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Sugat Chaturvedi & Sabyasachi Das & Kanika Mahajan, 2021. "The importance of being earnest: What explains the gender quota effect in politics?," Discussion Papers 21-02, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
    3. Henning, Karla & Vollan, Björn & Balafoutas, Loukas, 2022. "Religious worship and discrimination," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 91-102.
    4. Bhalotra, Sonia & Clots-Figueras, Irma & Iyer, Lakshmi, 2023. "Ethnic conflict : the role of ethnic representation," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1463, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    5. Bhalotra, Sonia & Clots-Figueras, Irma & Iyer, Lakshmi, 2021. "Religion and abortion: The role of politician identity," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    6. Gangadharan, Lata & Grossman, Philip J. & Molle, Mana Komai & Vecci, Joe, 2019. "Impact of social identity and inequality on antisocial behaviour," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 199-215.
    7. Subhasish Dugar & Haimanti Bhattacharya, 2019. "Can Concerns for Social Status Mitigate the ‘Lemons Problem’? Experimental Evidence from the Indian Caste Hierarchy," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 14(2), pages 151-179, August.
    8. Lata Gangadharan & Tarun Jain & Pushkar Maitra & Joe Vecci, 2022. "Lab-in-the-field experiments: perspectives from research on gender," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 73(1), pages 31-59, January.
    9. Siddique, Abu & Vlassopoulos, Michael & Zenou, Yves, 2024. "Leveraging Edutainment and Social Networks to Foster Interethnic Harmony," CEPR Discussion Papers 19034, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Roy, Moumita & Houser, Daniel, 2024. "Corrigendum to “Identity, Leadership, and Cooperation: An experimental analysis” [European Economic Review 165 (2024) 104741]," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • J78 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Public Policy (including comparable worth)

    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:cpr:ceprdp:16158. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    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.