Political selection and the quality of government: evidence from south India

Timothy Besley, Rohini Pande and Vijayendra Rao

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper uses household data from India to examine the economic and social status of village politicians, and how individual and village characteristics a®ect politician behavior while in o±ce. Education increases the chances of selection to public o±ce and reduces the odds that a politician uses political power opportunistically. In contrast, land ownership and political connections enable selection but do not a®ect politician opportunism. At the village level, changes in the identity of the politically dominant group alters the group allocation of resources but not politician opportunism. Improved information °ows in the village, however, reduce opportunism and improve resource allocation.

JEL-codes: J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2005-08
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/3766/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Political Selection and the Quality of Government: Evidence from South India (2005)
Working Paper: Political Selection and the Quality ofGovernment: Evidence from South India (2005)
Working Paper: Political Selection and the Quality of Government: Evidence from South India (2005)
Working Paper: Political Selection and the Quality of Government: Evidence from South India (2005)
Working Paper: Political Selection and the Qualilty of Government: Evidence from South India (2005)
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:ehl:lserod:3766

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().