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Arnab Mukherji
Arnab Mukherji is an associate professor at the Center for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB). He is also a faculty affiliate at the WORLD Policy Center at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) and a Researcher with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research funded Maternal and Child Health Equity programme. His primary areas of research are in health and development economics with a focus on India. He has been a consultant with the Government of Bihar, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank from time to time. He received his Ph.D. in policy analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School.
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Mahila Samakhya: Women’s education through empowerment
While girls are now at par with boys in school enrolment, they continue to lag behind in terms of the number of years spent in formal education. In this context, this article assesses the impact of the ‘Mahila Samakhya’ programme – which sought to empower women within local communities in rural India in order to challenge traditional gender roles that may be restricting girls’ education – on educational gains.
Consumption spikes and election delays
There is ample anecdotal evidence on political parties bribing voters with cash or consumption goods prior to elections, in India and other developing countries. However, there is an expected lack of hard evidence on the extent and form of vote-buying. Using data from Indian states, this column analyses consumption patterns of households around elections, and finds a spike for some items just before elections.