Rohini Pande
This research consists of a large empirical project that will examine how political affirmative action for women in India has affected policy outcomes, female participation in government, and the extent of gender bias.
The project will collect and use three types of data – household and village-level survey data, village meeting transcripts, and experimental data – to assess whether political reservations empowered women, increased their political agency (participation and representation), and affected the well-being of women and children. The project will assess the effects of female leadership on child health, education, and teenagers’ aspirations, and the channels through which these effects operate. The project will also examine how mandated political representation of women has affected the extent of explicit and implicit gender discrimination prevalent in these villages.