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Building State capacity for accelerating development through effective governance
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Governance
Curbing leakage in public programmes: Evidence from Direct Benefit Transfer policy for LPG subsidies
Many developing countries subsidise access to essential commodities with in-kind transfer programmes, where beneficiaries receive goods at subsidised prices while non-beneficiaries have to pay the market price. The resulting ‘dual pricing’ provides incentives to intermediaries to divert subsidised goods to non-beneficiaries. This article studies a policy reform in India to transfer fuel subsidies directly to the programme beneficiaries’ bank accounts and finds a significant reduction in the subsidy leakage.
Do roads bring votes in rural India?
A large-scale rural roads programme in India has provided access to over two-third of villages that lacked a paved road in 2001. Do citizens reward incumbent governments electorally for these improvements in connectivity and well-being? Using data from elections and roads provision for 2000-2017, the article suggests that citizens do not vote on the basis of policy even when they have access to rich information about the policy’s provision.
Oral democracy
Critical scrutiny of the challenges of electoral democracy including elite capture, corruption, and patronage has led to a revival of the idea of direct democracy – giving power directly to groups of people to make collective decisions. This article analyses discussions held in 300 village meetings from four South Indian states to understand the role of the State and the necessity of literacy for a vibrant deliberative democracy.
Are transparency and accountability enough? Open corruption and why it exists
While India’s federal anti-corruption ombudsmen have just taken up their work, awareness of the complexity of corruption is growing. This article studies whether highly accountable Indian village council presidents favour their own households while making observable allocations of public works jobs. It finds that corruption can exist even when it is visible and punishable, plausibly because it serves as a reward for efforts put into programme implementation.
Should civil servants be allowed to serve in their home areas?
Bureaucrats form an essential part of State capacity. Should they be allowed to serve in their home areas? This article finds that Indian Administrative Service officers assigned to their home states perform worse than comparable officers assigned to non-home states, are perceived to be more corrupt and less able to withstand illegitimate political pressure. This performance gap is particularly pronounced in the later career stages when there is more room for patronage and capture of bureaucracy by local political elite.
Strengthen MNREGS to support the rural economy
India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) has generated a lot of controversy about its effectiveness as a safety net designed to benefit landless rural households. Muralidharan, Niehaus, and Sukhtankar discuss the results from a large-scale randomised evaluation that suggest MNREGS may be a surprisingly effective tool both for improving the welfare of the landless rural poor and increasing overall rural productivity.
Rethinking cadre allocation procedures in civil services
The allocation procedure of All-India Services’ officers to states is an important aspect of personnel administration in the public sector. This article shows that a change in allocation policy in 2008 resulted in lower quality officers being systematically assigned to disadvantaged states. It examines the causes of these imbalances and impact on State capacity and development outcomes, and explores alternate mechanisms.
(Un)ease of doing business: How congested courts hinder firm productivity
The strength of contract enforcement determines how firms source inputs and organise production, and hence influences productivity. Using microdata on Indian manufacturing, this article quantifies the impact of congestion and delays in Indian courts of justice on aggregate productivity. It finds on average across states, if court congestion were reduced to be in line with the least congested state, industrial productivity will increase by roughly 5%.
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