Search

How serious is indoor air pollution (IAP) as a threat to infants and children? This paper estimates the impact of cooking fuel choice – a predominant source of IAP – on under-five mortality in India, where reliance on biomass fuels such as firewood, animal dung, and agricultural waste is pervasive. Leveraging forest cover and agricultural land ownership for identification and nationally representative data, we find that solid fuel use for cooking significantly increases the child mortality rate - mainly driven by neonatal mortality in the first 28 days after birth. The mortality effect is higher for girls than boys and is magnified in relatively small households where there is limited scope for the division of labor between childcare and cooking responsibilities. Among polluting fuels, we find that biomass fuels drive the impact of polluting fuel use on child mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents evidence of gender peer effects in high schools in India using new administrative data. Identification of gender peer effects is achieved by exploiting variation induced by idiosyncratic changes in gender composition across cohorts within schools, in addition to controlling for past scores. The proportion of female classmates in a student's cohort has a sizeable positive effect on the test scores of both male and female students. We find that peer effects vary non-linearly with the proportion of female students. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence on plausible mechanisms. We show that achievement spillovers are not the main driver of positive gender peer effects. Using a supplemental dataset, we show that a greater proportion of female students leads to an improved classroom environment in the context of Indian schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we show that the village social structure shapes the learning outcome of marginalised children in rural India. Exploiting the variation in the dominant social group in the village, we find a significant impact of village dominance. The reading and arithmetic skills of Scheduled Castes are better in their own castes-dominated villages compared to higher castes-dominated villages. Our findings show that village dominance affects learning outcomes primarily through differential teachers' behaviour. Children from marginalised castes are more likely to be scolded, beaten up, and treated unfairly by teachers in villages dominated by higher castes compared to their own castes. We do not find evidence of other mechanisms like the difference in parent and children's aspirations, caste diversity, discrimination in the village, or positive group externalities, which could explain why children from Scheduled Castes fare better in their own castes-dominated villages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the consequence of affirmative action for a "middle" ranked group on equity and the leader's overall performance or "efficiency." The literature on electoral quotas is invested in the equity question for disadvantaged groups, but is mostly silent on this issue. We use a randomized electoral quota for an intermediately ranked caste group (OBCs) in a large state in India to show that overall, such a quota does not affect delivery of public projects, or redistribute projects away from disadvantaged groups (SC/STs). Moreover, we show that when the group is large, the quota may in fact improve leader's performance. The improvement in overall performance does not come at a cost of lower allocation to the most disadvantaged group. We argue and provide suggestive evidence that when the group is large, such a quota for the group increases within-group electoral competition in villages. The result highlights that "efficiency" concerns regarding affirmative action may need reevaluation. It further justifies the targeting of electoral quota policy in India towards jurisdictions where the group is numerous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Examine link between perceived COVID-19 risk and return decision among migrants. • Use novel survey data of 495 reverse male migrants in India in april-may 2020. • Migrants with greater perceived COVID-19 infection risk less willing to return. • Impatience positively associated with greater willingness to return. • Higher recall of prevention strategies linked to lower perceived COVID-19 risk. This paper explores the causal link between the likelihood of re-migration to cities and the perceived threat of contracting COVID-19 using novel data on male reverse migrant workers in India. We find that reverse-migrants who believe there is a significant chance of contracting COVID-19 display a significantly lower likelihood of returning to their urban workplaces, regardless of their duration of migration. On the other hand, longer-duration migrants display a lower perceived chance of contracting COVID-19 than shorter-duration migrants. We also contribute to the migration literature by linking behavioural attributes to the decision to migrate. We find that more impatient individuals display a heightened belief regarding contracting COVID-19 and a higher projected likelihood of returning to work. Finally, we find that while both loss and risk-averse individuals have a lower projected likelihood of returning to urban workplaces, only loss-averse individuals perceive that their chance of contracting COVID-19 is lower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender gaps in skills exist around the world but differ remarkably among countries. This paper uses a unique data set with more than 20,000 adolescents in rural India to explore gender gaps in cognitive and noncognitive skills. We find that boys have considerable advantages over girls on several indicators of cognitive and noncognitive skills that remains robust to a wide range of controls and specification choices. We also examine the correlates of cognitive and noncognitive outcomes, paying close attention to socioeconomic status (SES) and pro-female gender attitudes. We find a steep positive gradient in SES as well as for pro-female gender attitudes, with stronger associations between the SES gradient and skills. Further, high socioeconomic status and more pro-female gender attitudes are both strongly correlated with reducing the gender gap in cognitive and noncognitive outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We estimate macroeconomic shocks using a medium scale new Keynesian model for India. • Our smoothed estimates of shocks mimic the actual transition of the economy during 1997–2019. • We find that the interest rate remained contractionary during 2013–16 despite falling inflation, characterized as policy error. • If supply side shocks (adverse productivity or mark-up) dominate, such policy errors tend to occur. • Such large-scale policy error can disrupt financial intermediation by creating bad assets in the banking sector. In the immediate aftermath of the global financial crisis, the monetary policy in India became accommodative as in other major economies, but the policy subsequently turned highly contractionary despite falling inflation, which we characterize as policy errors. Government expenditure also had similar pattern. This paper therefore estimates a medium scale New Keynesian model (with earnings and assets based collateral constraint) to explore the impact of such policy errors on Indian business cycles, capturing the prevailing narrative on both monetary and fiscal policies along with the actual inflation scenario. Our smoothed estimates of mark-up, productivity, interest rate and government expenditure shocks mimic the actual transition of the economy, with both policy shocks moving together in a similar pattern in the post crisis period. We find that the interest rate policy was highly contractionary during 2013-2016 which led to significantly lower output. We rationalize that if supply side shocks (adverse productivity or mark-up) dominate, such policy errors tend to occur, suggesting that policy makers need to pay attention to the sources of inflation in a developing economy while setting demand-management policies. Given the current pandemic as more of a adverse supply shock, similar policy errors are likely to occur if interest rate responds to this type of inflationary shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lack of information about health risks may limit the adoption of improved nutrition and other new healthy behaviors. This paper studies the effect of a nutrition-information intervention on household dietary behavior, hemoglobin levels, and cognitive outcomes of children in rural India. Using experimental data and a regression discontinuity design that exploits the exogenous cutoff of hemoglobin level for anemia, we find statistically insignificant treatment effects on dietary improvements, child health, and cognitive outcomes of children. Our findings suggest that light-touch nutrition information alone, even when parents are informed about the health risk of their children, may not induce adoption of healthy behaviors. Our findings also imply that factors other than information might constrain households in making nutritional investments for their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has the world's biggest and arguably most aggressive employment-based affirmative action policy for minorities. This paper exploits the institutional features of a federally mandated employment quota policy to examine its causal impact on the economic lives of the two distinct minority groups (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes). My main finding is that a 1-percentage point increase in the employment quota for Scheduled Castes increases the likelihood of obtaining a salaried job by 0.6-percentage points for male Scheduled Caste members residing in the rural sector. The employment quota policy has no impact for Scheduled Tribes. Contrary to popular notion, I do not find evidence of "elite-capture" among the Scheduled Castes – the impact is concentrated among members who have completed less than secondary education. Consistent with the employment results, I find that the policy improved the well-being of Scheduled Castes members in rural areas who have completed less than secondary education. Finally, the impact of the employment quota policy varies by state characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a field experiment in India and mediation analysis to investigate the causal mechanisms between financial education and financial behavior. Focusing on the mediating role of financial literacy, we propose a broader definition of financial knowledge that includes three dimensions: numeracy skills, financial awareness, and attitudes towards personal finance. We then employ causal mediation analysis to investigate the proportion of the treatment effect that can be attributed to these three channels. Strikingly, we find that numeracy does not mediate any effects of financial education on financial outcomes. For simple financial actions such as budgeting, both awareness and attitudes serve as pathways, while for more complex financial activities such as opening a savings account, attitudes play a more prominent role—though these patterns appear to be sensitive to confounding. We also compare our mediation analysis results to other empirical techniques that have been typically used to study mechanisms, and we discuss how mediation analysis differs from these approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endogamy or intra-caste marriage is one of the most resilient of all the caste based practices in India. Even in 2011, the rate of inter caste marriages in India was as low as 5.82%. In this paper we explore whether education has any relationship with this age-old practice of marrying within one's own caste. Using a nationally representative data set, the Indian Human Development Survey, we find that, in sharp contrast with the findings in the existing literature on out-marriages in the Western countries, education levels of the spouses themselves do not have any association with the likelihood of their own marriage being an inter caste one. However, couples with a more educated mother of the husband have a significantly higher probability of being in an inter caste marriage. One standard deviation increase in the years of education of the husband's mother is associated with a 10.16% increase in the probability of inter caste marriage over the sample mean. Our analysis highlights the importance of recognizing the institution of arranged marriages in any analysis of Indian marriage markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We experimentally examine gender differences in the behavior of leaders. • Women leaders are more likely to deviate negatively from what they propose. • This deviation is salient in specific social environments. • We argue this is due to the different costs of leadership between genders. • The social environment can be a barrier to female leaders' effectiveness. Using data from two sets of experiments conducted in rural India, this paper finds that relative to men, women assigned to be leaders contribute less than what they propose in a public goods game. We examine whether this behavior is influenced by the social environment. We find that female leaders deviate negatively from their proposals more frequently than males, when the gender of the leader is revealed and in villages with a female head assigned through an exogenous affirmative action policy. Women leaders anticipating lower economic and social costs for their actions compared to male leaders are potential explanations for observed gender differences in behavior. Our results suggest that the social environment can influence the behavior and the potential effectiveness of female leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results from a lab-in-the-field experiment conducted in Bangladesh and India that examines the influence of religion and relative status on trust and trustworthiness. We find that in both locations individuals with minority status, irrespective of their religion, exhibit positive in-group bias in trust, while individuals with majority status show positive out-group bias in trustworthiness. This suggests that behavior is not driven by religious identity per se but is highly influenced by the relative status it generates within the population. Within both groups, heterogeneity with respect to how strongly individuals associate with the group identity affects behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests two specific mechanisms through which individuals can form expectations about returns to investments in education: recognition for schooling performance, and exposure to successful students through family or social networks. Using a regression discontinuity design, we study the impact of two fellowship programs recognizing educational performance in secondary schools in India. We find that the fellowship award is associated with a significant increase in the perceived value of education, by both increasing the perceived mean of earnings (0.74 standard deviations (SD)) and decreasing the perceived variance in earnings (1.03 SD) associated with additional years of schooling. The effects spill over only selectively to social and family networks. Peers exposed to successful students do not update their beliefs but parents of fellows report higher perceived returns to education. Peers of fellows are however more informed about fellowship opportunities and report a higher intention to apply for the fellowship, thus contributing to the persistence of the potential impact of the fellowship across different cohorts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides evidence for the effectiveness of performance pay to government health workers and how performance pay interacts with demand-side information. In a controlled study covering 145 child day-care centers, I implement three separate treatments. First, I engineer an exogenous change in compensation for childcare workers from fixed wages to performance pay. Second, I only provide mothers with information without incentivizing the workers. Third, I combine the first two treatments. This helps us identify if performance pay and public information are complements or substitutes in reducing child malnutrition. I find that combining incentives to workers and information to mothers reduces weight-for-age malnutrition by 4.2 percentage points in 3 months, although individually the effects are negligible. This complementarity is shown to be driven by better mother–worker communication and the mother feeding more calorific food at home. There is also a sustained long-run positive impact of the combined treatment after the experiment concluded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the returns to household income due to improved access to electricity in rural India. We examine the effect of connecting a household to the grid and of the quality of electricity, defined as hours of daily supply. The analysis is based on two rounds of a representative panel of more than 10,000 households. We use the district-level density of transmission cables as instrument for the electrification status of the household. We find that a grid connection increases non-agricultural incomes of rural households by about 9% during the study period (1994–2005). However, a grid connection and a higher quality of electricity (in terms of fewer outages and more hours per day) increases non-agricultural incomes by about 28.6% in the same period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. Using an instrumental variables approach derived from a regression discontinuity, 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. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]