Are Poor Voters Indifferent to Whether Elected Leaders Are Criminal or Corrupt? A Vignette Experiment in Rural India

Banerjee, Abhijit; Green, Donald P.; McManus, Jeffery; Pande, Rohini

doi:10.1080/10584609.2014.914615

Cited by 95 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Most narrowly, our findings contribute to the emerging literature on criminally accused politicians in India. Existing studies typically focus on the selection of these candidates; some examine the response of voters to information on criminal status or criminal charges and the potential mitigating effect of caste politics (Banerjee et al 2014, Charchard 2014. Others examine the selection of these candidates by political parties (Aidt et al 2012, Tiwari 2014, Vaishnav 2011a, 2011b, 2011c.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do criminally accused politicians affect economic outcomes? Evidence from India

Prakash

Rockmore

Uppal

2019

Journal of Development Economics

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We study the causal impact of electing criminally accused politicians to state legislative assemblies in India on the subsequent economic performance of their constituencies. Using data on the criminal background of candidates running for state assembly elections and a constituency-level measure of economic activity proxied by intensity of night-time lights, we employ a regression discontinuity design that controls for unobserved heterogeneity across constituencies and find 22-percentage point lower yearly growth in the intensity of night-time lights arising from the election of a criminally accused politician. These effects are driven by serious, financial and the number of criminal charges and appear to be concentrated in the less developed and more corrupt Indian states. Similar findings emerge for the provision of public goods using data on India's major rural roads construction program.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do criminally accused politicians affect economic outcomes? Evidence from India

Prakash

Rockmore

Uppal

2019

Journal of Development Economics

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“…The role of information in persuading citizens appears to be equally important in poor countries, and even for issues such as ethnic identity which could be regarded as fixed preferences that are resistant to change. The same authors who argued that ethnic preferences can explain persistence 13 of corruption show in other work in the same political context that voter preferences regarding ethnic identity are malleable and responsive to information about the severity of allegations of transgression (Banerjee et al 2014;Banerjee et al 2009). This is consistent with a large literature finding evidence of responsiveness of voters in poor countries to the availability of information, despite theoretical predictions in a long-standing political science literature that voters in these contexts are unlikely to be swayed by information (World Bank, 2016;Keefer and Khemani, 2014).…”

Section: Problem Of Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 96%

Political Economy of Reform

Khemani

2017

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“…The other researchers such as Bhalotra et al (2014), Harris (2015) and Beg (2017) also used religious identity as a factor in their study on political marketing in India and asserted that religious concerns can increase voter involvement. Similarly, researchers such as Banerjee Green, McManus, and Pande (2014) and Huber and Suryanarayan (2016) opined that the caste concerns of Indian voters also influence their involvement in the election process. Recently, Vaishnav (2015) also emphasized the importance of religious and caste identity of politicians in Indian elections.…”

Section: Religious and Caste Considerations (Rcc) And Voter Involvemementioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of Voter Satisfaction: Empirical Investigation of Young Indian Voters

et al. 2019

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The objective of the present study was to identify factors that sensitise voters towards the political system and stimulate them for active participation in the election process. The study also aimed to examine the role of these factors in increasing the voter satisfaction. Data was generated from a sample of 194 young voters. One contribution of the study was to validate a scale measuring political sensitivity of voters. Findings also revealed that the higher the economic and global consideration (EGC) among voters the lesser will be their satisfaction with the existing political system. The predictors of EGC are observed to be social considerations (SC) and perceived risk (PR). Findings of the study also suggest that higher perceived knowledge of voters will lead to increased involvement in the political system. The study is pioneering as it initiates efforts for comprehensive analyses of the Indian voters for better understanding of factors that affect their political sensitivity.

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Are Poor Voters Indifferent to Whether Elected Leaders Are Criminal or Corrupt? A Vignette Experiment in Rural India

Cited by 95 publications

References 12 publications

Do criminally accused politicians affect economic outcomes? Evidence from India

Do criminally accused politicians affect economic outcomes? Evidence from India

Political Economy of Reform

Dynamics of Voter Satisfaction: Empirical Investigation of Young Indian Voters

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