Building connections: Political corruption and road construction in India

Jonathan Lehne, Jacob N. Shapiro and Oliver Vanden Eynde
Additional contact information
Jonathan Lehne: PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement
Jacob N. Shapiro: WWSPIL - Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs - Princeton University

PSE Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: Politically-driven corruption is a pervasive challenge for development, but evidence of its welfare effects is scarce. Using data from a major rural road construction programme in India we document political influence in a setting where politicians have no official role in contracting decisions. Exploiting close elections to identify the causal effect of coming to power, we show that the share of contractors whose name matches that of the winning politician increases by 63% (from 4% to 6.4%). Regression discontinuity estimates at the road level show that political interference raises costs, lowers quality, and increases the likelihood that roads go missing.

Keywords: Elections; Corruption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-pol and nep-tre
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01349350v1
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01349350v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Building connections: Political corruption and road construction in India (2018)
Working Paper: Building connections: Political corruption and road construction in India (2018)
Working Paper: Building connections: Political corruption and road construction in India (2018)
Working Paper: Building connections: Political corruption and road construction in India (2016)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-01349350

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in PSE Working Papers from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().