We provide a model of self-selection by candidates in a probabilistic voting environment to
shed light on the forces sha** the quality of politicians from both the supply and demand …

A sound understanding of poverty traps—defined as poverty that is self-reinforcing due to
the poor's equilibrium behaviors—and their underlying mechanisms is fundamentally …

I estimate the effects of collaborative and adversarial intergroup contact. I randomly
assigned Indian men from different castes to participate in cricket leagues or to serve as a …

Caste plays a role at every stage of an Indian's economic life, in school, university, the labor
market, and into old age. The influence of caste extends beyond private economic activity …

Currently, numerous rural regions face the dual challenges of energy poverty and
environmental pollution, which highlight the urgent need to improve the clean energy …

Does political affirmative action undermine or promote development? We present the first
systematic analysis of Scheduled Areas in India, home to 100 million, where local political …

This study estimates the effect of improved bureaucrat quality on poverty alleviation by
exploring a unique human capital reallocation policy in China—the College Graduate …

Remittances—money migrant workers send back home—are the second largest source of
international financial flows in develo** countries. As with other sources of international …

This paper analyzes the importance of local interaction between individuals of different
ethnolinguistic groups for the provision of public goods at the national level. The conceptual …

Caste norms, the religious and social rules that underpin the Hindu caste system, impose
strong constraints on behavior: women should stay secluded within the home, caste groups …