Abstract
In most developing countries, local government officials are ultimately responsible for implementing development programs and delivering public services (Mookherjee 2015). It is therefore critical to understand how to improve the capacity and efficiency of local government. Decentralisation and other policies to broaden political representation (eg. reservations for marginalised groups) have brought new cohorts of leaders into the political system, shaping policy choices (Chattopadhyay and Duflo 2004). However, these new leaders, especially those from disadvantaged groups, may be unfamiliar with formal government processes and policies and may lack the informal networks required to navigate these processes.
Peer networks can play an important role in helping new leaders learn how to govern better. Indeed, in other contexts, informal networks have proved to be a key source of learning. Farmers’ decisions to adopt new agricultural technologies are heavily influenced by their peers’ choices (Foster and Rosenzweig 1996, Ben Yishay et al 2021). SME owners appear to learn effective management practices from peer firms (Cai and Szeidl, 2018). Peer effects are also important sources of information diffusion in education (Duflo et al 2011) and the workplace (Sandvik et al 2020).
In our setting, peer networks may be a natural mechanism through which information about good governance practices spread. This may enable successful institutional experiments to diffuse to other local governments, enhancing the benefits of decentralisation. Yet, despite their importance, we have almost no empirical evidence on politicians’ networks and how they affect governance and economic development.
In this project, we study how peer networks among local politicians affect the quality of governance and local economic development. Partnering with the Govt of Bihar, specifically the Departments of Panchayati Raj/Rural Development, we evaluate the impacts of peer groups for local politicians. Working with over 4000 local government officials – village-level elected representatives called “ward members” – our project aims to answer four questions:
1. What is the existing nature of peer networks among local politicians? Who are local politicians connected to and what information is exchanged through these networks?
2. How do peer networks among ward members affect public service delivery, implementation of government schemes and the overall quality of local governance?
3. Do peer networks facilitate the diffusion of “best practices” and increase the returns to policy experimentation?
4. What barriers prevent peer networks from forming organically?
We will also attempt to understand the mechanisms through which peer networks affect governance, and embed treatment variants to understand the role of two specific mechanisms – learning and coordination. We will also assess whether peer networks have different effects from a cheaper and easier-to-scale intervention.