Publications
Publications
- 2013
- HBS Working Paper Series
Religion, Politician Identity and Development Outcomes: Evidence from India
By: Sonia Bhalotra, Guilhem Cassan, Irma Clots-Figueras and Lakshmi Iyer
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.
Keywords
Politician Identity; Infant Mortality; Primary Education; India; Muslim; Fairness; Religion; Government and Politics; India
Citation
Bhalotra, Sonia, Guilhem Cassan, Irma Clots-Figueras, and Lakshmi Iyer. "Religion, Politician Identity and Development Outcomes: Evidence from India." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13-102, June 2013. (NBER Working Paper Series, No. 19173, July 2013.)