Religion, politician identity and development outcomes
Subtitle: evidence from India
By: Sonia Bhalotra, Guilhem Cassan, Irma Clots-Figueras, Lakshmi Iyer
Contributors: Cassan, Guilhem; Clots-Figueras, Irma; Iyer, Lakshmi; Harvard Business School
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 13-102; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 13-102
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Boston]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 16
Description: 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.
Notes: "June 2013."--Publisher's Web site.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 15-16).