Socio-Economic and Politics Projects

Incorporating public transfers into the measurement of poverty

Rohini Somanathan (Professor of Economics from Delhi School of economics ) , and Anders Kjelsrud (Professor of Economics from Oslo University )

Poverty measurement in India has been extremely controversial. The recent expert group of the Planning Commission, among other things, proposed incorporating variations in the costs of health and education expenditures of households in arriving at new state-level poverty lines. This…

Location: Bihar

Understanding the importance of Khap Panchayat: survey at Haryana, India

Ashna Arora (Research Director from Crime and Education Labs )

Ashna Arora , wanted to collect data about the spread and functioning of Khap Panchayats in Haryana – a state where khaps are functioning actively. Khap Panchayat is the union of 84 villages, they are traditional and caste-based socio-political groups…

Location: Harayana

Culture, Capital and the Political Economy Gender Gap: Evidence from Meghalaya’s Matrilineal Tribes

Rachel Brulé (Professor from Boston University ) , and Nikhar Gaikwad (Assistant Professor from Columbia University )

Scholars from Marx to Weber have debated whether the gender gap in political engagement and political economy preferences stems from material or cultural determinants. Researchers argue, by contrast, that cultural norms themselves structure access to economic resources; it is through…

Location: Meghayala

Getting Rich Too Fast? Voters’ Reactions to Politicians’ Wealth Accumulation

Simon Chauchard (Assistant Professor from Leiden University ) , Marko Klašnja ( Assistant Professor from Georgetown University ) , and S.P. Harish ( Assistant Professor from College of William & Mary )

The experiment randomly manipulated a number of relevant characteristics of fictional but realistic candidates, including their wealth accumulation in office. Interviewers then asked a socially, politically and ethnically diverse sample of citizens in Madhepura district (N=1020) to evaluate these politician…

Location: Bihar

Social Learning, Gender, and Willingness to Pay for Solar Lanterns

Johannes Urpelainen (Professor from University of Gothenburg ) , Yonas Alem (Professor from University of Gothenburg ) , and Eugenie Dugoua (Assistant Professor from Columbia University )

In this field experiment, researchers tried to find out the impact of Social Learning on the willingness to pay for a solar lantern on families in rural areas of India among both the genders. Under the supervision of Johannes Urpelainen, Yonas Alem a…

Location: Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh

Crowdsourcing data on the reliability of electricity service: Evidence from a telephone survey in Uttar Pradesh, India

Ryan Kennedy (Professor from University of Houston ) , Aseem Mahajan ( from Harvard University ) , and Johannes Urpelainen (Professor from Johns Hopkins SAIS )

Measuring energy access in developing countries involves much more than simply recording whether or not households are connected to the grid. Both international organizations and scholars now recognize the importance of a reliable electricity supply for achieving positive development outcomes.…

Location: Uttar Pradesh

Ethnic Discrimination among residents of slum areas in India

Tariq Thachil, (Associate Professor of Political Science from Vanderbilt University ) , and Adam Auerbach, (Assistant Professor in the School of International Service from American University. )

MORSEL collected data electronically from 2200 households in the slum areas of Jaipur, Rajasthan Bhopal and Madhya Pradesh. Under the supervision of Tariq Thachil, Associate Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University and Adam Auerbach, Assistant Professor in the School of International Service at American University. MORSEL randomized…

Location: Jaipur, Rajasthan and Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh

Understanding Patterns and Impacts of Electricity Quality and Access in Northern India

Marc Jeuland ( from Duke University. ) , Michael Keppler ( from Duke University. ) , Thomas Lutken ( from Duke University. ) , and Sumin Wang ( from Duke University. )

Indians have suffered from rolling outages and blackouts even as millions of citizens have gained access to electricity in recent years, which has led to concerns about electricity quality and its impacts. Under the guidance of the research team, Morsel…

Location: Uttar Pradesh and Bihar

Rethinking clientelism: Politics of service delivery in rural India

Aditya Dasgupta ( Assistant Professor from University of California, Merced )

Why in developing countries do some communities receive better access than others to government anti-poverty programmes that are ostensibly rule-based? For decades, the dominant framework for understanding this puzzle has been the literature on ‘clientelism’, which suggests that politicians manipulate…

Location: Rajasthan

Voting behavior experiment in Uttar Pradesh

Gautam Nair (Assistant Professor from Yale University )

Although in theory elections are supposed to prevent criminal or venal candidates from winning or retaining office, in practice voters frequently elect and reelect such candidates. The electoral performance of candidates who face serious allegations likely reflects factors other than…

Location: Uttar Pradesh

The Economic Causes Of Crop Residue Burning In The Rice-Wheat System Of The Indo-Gangetic Plain

Ridhima Gupta (Evaluation Specialist from Oxford Policy Management ) , and E. Somanathan (Professor from Economics and Planning Unit, Indian Statistical Institute )

This project was to examine the impact of means of farming on pollution. As Punjab, a North Indian state, where the main occupation is agriculture, the farmers are using high-tech equipment compared to other parts of India. This survey-based study…

Location: Uttar Pradesh and Punjab

Caste Reservation in Panchayats and Distribution of Public Benefits

Thad Dunning ( from University of California, Berkeley ) , and Jennifer Bussell ( from University of California, Berkeley )

In this project, MORSEL is collected panchayat reservation history data and procedure of allocation of reserved seats in all states of India. MORSEL is surveying State Election Commissioners and Panchayat Directorate officials of the states and collected secondary data. In the second part of…