Gender and Public Goods Provision in Tamil Nadu's Village Governments
Using data from 144 village-level governments in India's Tamil Nadu state, this paper investigates political reservations for women and whether the gender of village government leaders influences the provision of village public goods. A knowle...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/05/19457306/gender-public-goods-provision-tamil-nadus-village-governments http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18351 |
| Summary: | Using data from 144 village-level
governments in India's Tamil Nadu state, this paper
investigates political reservations for women and whether
the gender of village government leaders influences the
provision of village public goods. A knowledge test of
village government presidents and a survey about the
interaction between village presidents and higher-level
officials reveal that female village government presidents
have much lower knowledge of the village government system
than do their male counterparts and have significantly less
contact with higher-level government officials. Although
male and female presidents provide similar amounts of some
public goods, there is strong evidence that village
governments led by a woman built fewer schools and roads two
public goods that require relatively more contact and
coordination with higher-level officials. |
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