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Religion, Politician Identity and Development Outcomes: Evidence from India

Author Info

  • Bhalotra, Sonia R.

    ()

    (University of Essex)

  • Clots-Figueras, Irma

    ()

    (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)

  • Cassan, Guilhem

    ()

    (University of Namur)

  • Iyer, Lakshmi

    ()

    (Harvard Business School)

Abstract

This paper investigates whether the religious identity of state legislators in India influences development outcomes, both for citizens of their religious group and for the population as a whole. To control for politician identity to be correlated with constituency level voter preferences or characteristics that make religion salient, we use quasi-random variation in legislator identity generated by close elections between Muslim and non-Muslim candidates. We find that increasing the political representation of Muslims improves health and education outcomes in the district from which the legislator is elected. We find no evidence of religious favoritism: Muslim children do not benefit more from Muslim political representation than children from other religious groups.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 7473.

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Length: 29 pages
Date of creation: Jun 2013
Date of revision:
Publication status: forthcoming in: Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7473
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Keywords: politician identity; infant mortality; religion; primary education; India; Muslim;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
  • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
  • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
  • P16 - Economic Systems - - Capitalist Systems - - - Political Economy of Capitalism

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  1. David S. Lee & Enrico Moretti & Matthew J. Butler, 2004. "Do Voters Affect Or Elect Policies? Evidence from the U. S. House," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 119(3), pages 807-859, August.
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  7. Rohini Pande, 2003. "Can Mandated Political Representation Increase Policy Influence for Disadvantaged Minorities? Theory and Evidence from India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1132-1151, September.
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  12. Timothy Besley & Rohini Pande & Vijayendra Rao, 2012. "Just Rewards? Local Politics and Public Resource Allocation in South India," World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 26(2), pages 191-216.
  13. Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Clots-Figueras, Irma, 2011. "Health and the Political Agency of Women," IZA Discussion Papers 6216, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  14. Kumar Das, Pranab & Kar, Saibal & Kayal, Madhumanti, 2011. "Religious Minorities and Provision of Public Goods: Evidence from Rural West Bengal," IZA Discussion Papers 6154, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  15. Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Valente, Christine & van Soest, Arthur, 2009. "The Puzzle of Muslim Advantage in Child Survival in India," IZA Discussion Papers 4009, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  16. Erik Meyersson, 2014. "Islamic Rule and the Empowerment of the Poor and Pious," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(1), pages 229-269, 01.
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  19. 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.
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Cited by:

  1. Thushyanthan Baskaran & Zohal Hessami, 2014. "Political alignment and intergovernmental transfers in parliamentary systems: Evidence from Germany," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2014-17, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.
  2. Nishith Prakash & Marc Rockmore, 2014. "Do Criminal Representatives Hinder or Improve Constituency Outcomes? Evidence from India," Working papers 2014-20, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.

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