TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Bhalotra, Sonia R.
AU  - Clots-Figueras, Irma
AU  - Cassan, Guilhem
AU  - Iyer, Lakshmi
        TI  - Religion, Politician Identity and Development Outcomes: Evidence from India
        PY  - 2013/Jun/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 7473
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp7473
        AB  - This paper investigates whether the religious identity of state legislators in India influences development outcomes, both for citizens of their religious group and for the population as a whole. To control for politician identity to be correlated with constituency level voter preferences or characteristics that make religion salient, we use quasi-random variation in legislator identity generated by close elections between Muslim and non-Muslim candidates. We find that increasing the political representation of Muslims improves health and education outcomes in the district from which the legislator is elected. We find no evidence of religious favoritism: Muslim children do not benefit more from Muslim political representation than children from other religious groups.
        KW  - primary education
KW  - India
KW  - Muslim
KW  - politician identity
KW  - religion
KW  - infant mortality
        ER  -