Empirical Studies in the Political Economy of Development

本研究包括三个发展政治经济学的实证研究。它将明智的实证技术与丰富的印度地区面板数据集结合起来，研究经济发展如何影响政治制度的运作，以及如何受到政治制度运作的影响。第一项研究使用大型水坝建设的数据来研究政治进程如何影响公共产品的提供，从而影响经济发展。本研究利用不同地区水坝建设的地理潜力及其政治影响的差异进行鉴定。第二项研究使用印度地区一级的数据来研究不同职业的经济增长率差异如何与不同宗教群体的职业选择相互作用，从而影响群体冲突的可能性，特别是社区暴力的发生率。通过提高我们对经济发展如何影响群体冲突的理解，本研究将有助于低收入国家关于最佳治理结构的政策辩论。第三项研究采用实地调查来考察经济发展如何影响政治家腐败的发生率。这项研究的结果将有助于我们评估政治和经济改革在减少贫穷国家腐败方面的相对重要性。这项研究还将为高级本科和研究生发展经济学课程制定课程，特别侧重于发展的政治经济学。课程将综合使用来自低收入国家的数据集和理论分析。这三项研究有可能极大地扩展我们对低收入国家经济发展与政治进程之间关系的理解。为这项研究收集的数据将对其他研究人员非常有用。本研究提出的教育议程也将使发展的政治经济学成为发展经济学课程的一个组成部分。

This research consists of three empirical studies in the political economy of development. It combines sensible empirical techniques with a rich Indian district panel data set to study how economic development affects, and is affected by, the functioning of political institutions. The first study uses data on large dam construction to study how the political process affects public good provision, and thereby economic development. This study exploits differences in the geographic potential of dam construction in districts and in their political influence for identification. The second study uses Indian district-level data to study how differential rates of economic growth across occupations interacts with occupational choices of different religious groups to affect the likelihood of group conflict, particularly the incidence of communal violence. By improving our understanding of how economic development affects group conflict, this study will contribute to the policy debate on the optimal architecture of governance in low-income countries. The third study uses a field survey to examine how economic development affects the incidence of politician corruption. The results of this study will help us assess the relative importance of political and economic reforms in reducing corruption in poor countries. The research will also develop curricula for advanced undergraduate and graduate development economics courses, with a special focus on the political economy of development. The curricula will integrate the use of data sets from low-income countries and theoretical analysis. These three studies have the potential to greatly expand our understanding of the relationship between economic development and political processes in low-income countries. The data collected for this research will be very useful to other researchers. The proposed educational agenda of this research will also make the political economy of development an integral part of development economics courses.