The Impact of Women Policy Makers on Public Goods in India

Last registered on October 24, 2016
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The Impact of Women Policy Makers on Public Goods in India
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0001633
Initial registration date
October 24, 2016

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
October 24, 2016, 10:22 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
India
Region
South Asia

Primary Investigator

Name
Esther Duflo
Affiliation
MIT
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Raghabendra Chattopadhyay
PI Affiliation
Indian Institute of Management
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
1991-01-01
End date
2003-12-31
Keywords
Governance
Additional Keywords
Gender, decentralization, affirmative action, political economy
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This paper uses political reservations for women in India to study the impact of women's leadership on policy decisions. Since the mid-1990's, one third of Village Council head positions in India have been randomly reserved for a woman: In these councils only women could be elected to the position of head. Village Councils are responsible for the provision of many local public goods in rural areas. Using a dataset we collected on 265 Village Councils in West Bengal and Rajasthan, we compare the type of public goods provided in reserved and unreserved Village Councils. We show that the reservation of a council seat affects the types of public goods provided. Specifically, leaders invest more in infrastructure that is directly relevant to the needs of their own genders.
External Link(s)
J-PAL evaluation summary

Registration Citation

Citation
Chattopadhyay, Raghabendra and Esther Duflo. 2016. "The Impact of Women Policy Makers on Public Goods in India." AEA RCT Registry. October 24. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1633-1.0
Former Citation
Chattopadhyay, Raghabendra and Esther Duflo. 2016. "The Impact of Women Policy Makers on Public Goods in India." AEA RCT Registry. October 24. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1633/history/11443
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
In every council election since the mid-1990's, the Indian government has randomly required one-third of councilor positions in each council and one-third of Pradhan positions across councils in a district to be be reserved for women. Thus, the treatment group consists of villages where positions have been reserved for women.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
1993-01-01
Intervention End Date
2003-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Investment in public goods (i.e. number of public goods' issues raised, number of public goods' projects taken up), Women's political participation, Fraction of women among Pradhans
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We conducted a detailed survey of all investments in local public goods in a sample of villages in two districts, Birbhum in West Bengal and Udaipur in Rajasthan, and compared investments made in reserved and unreserved GPs. In West Bengal, the Panchayat Constitution Rule was modified in 1993, so as to reserve one-third of the councilor positions in each GP to women; and the rule was again modified in 1998 to introduce reservation of Pradhan positions for women and SC/ST. In Rajasthan, the random rotation system was implemented in 1995 and in 2000 at both levels (council members and Pradhans).
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Prior to an election, village council positions in a district are randomly assigned across three lists to ensure some positions are reserved for disadvantaged minorities: Reserved for scheduled castes (SC), Reserved for scheduled tribes (ST), and Unreserved. Within a list village councils are ordered by serial number, and every third council starting with number one on each list, was required to be reserved for a woman.
Randomization Unit
Local village councils (Gram Panchayats, GPs)
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
261 GPs
Sample size: planned number of observations
261 GPs
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Reserved, West Bengal: 54 GPs
Unreserved, West Bengal: 107 GPs
Reserved, Rajasthan: 40 GPs
Unreserved, Rajasthan: 60 GPs
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
December 31, 2003, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
December 31, 2003, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
261 GPs
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
Number of observations differ dependent on the level of data collection. Number of observations from census level data: 2220 observations (2120 West Bengal, 100 Rajasthan). Number of observations on GP level outcomes: 261 observations (161 West Bengal, 100 Rajasthan). Number of observations from village level surveys: 422 observations (322 West Bengal, 100 Rajasthan).
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
Yes
Public Data URL
https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=hdl:1902.1/USBFNOMLAT&studyListingIndex=1_8bf27802c97f7947da43a2c8dc1a

Program Files

Program Files
Yes
Program Files URL
https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=hdl:1902.1/USBFNOMLAT&studyListingIndex=1_8bf27802c97f7947da43a2c8dc1a
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Abstract
Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India
Citation
Chattopadhyay, Raghabendra, and Esther Duflo. 2004. "Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India." Econometrica 72(5): 1409-43.
URL
https://www.povertyactionlab.org/sites/default/files/publications/65_Duflo_Women_as_Policy_Makers.pdf

Reports & Other Materials