Publication: Gender and Public Goods Provision in Tamil Nadu's Village Governments
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2014-05
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2014-05-15
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Using data from 144 village-level governments in India's Tamil Nadu state, this paper investigates political reservations for women and whether the gender of village government leaders influences the provision of village public goods. A knowledge test of village government presidents and a survey about the interaction between village presidents and higher-level officials reveal that female village government presidents have much lower knowledge of the village government system than do their male counterparts and have significantly less contact with higher-level government officials. Although male and female presidents provide similar amounts of some public goods, there is strong evidence that village governments led by a woman built fewer schools and roads two public goods that require relatively more contact and coordination with higher-level officials.
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“Gajwani, Kiran; Zhang, Xiaobo. 2014. Gender and Public Goods Provision in Tamil Nadu's Village Governments. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 6854. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18351 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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