{"id":4883,"date":"2023-10-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-30T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.isid.ac.in\/~cecfee\/?post_type=publication&#038;p=4883"},"modified":"2025-04-29T16:19:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T10:49:28","slug":"does-affirmative-action-in-politics-hinder-performance-evidence-from-india","status":"publish","type":"publication","link":"https:\/\/www.isid.ac.in\/~cecfee\/publication\/does-affirmative-action-in-politics-hinder-performance-evidence-from-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Does affirmative action in politics hinder performance? Evidence from India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This paper examines the consequence of affirmative action for a \u201cmiddle\u201d ranked group on equity and the leader&#8217;s overall performance or \u201cefficiency.\u201d The literature on electoral quotas is invested in the equity question for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/topics\/social-sciences\/disadvantaged-group\">disadvantaged groups<\/a>, but is mostly silent on this issue. We use a randomized electoral quota for an intermediately ranked caste group (OBCs) in a large state in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/topics\/social-sciences\/india\">India<\/a>\u00a0to show that overall, such a quota does not affect delivery of public projects, or redistribute projects away from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/topics\/social-sciences\/disadvantaged-group\">disadvantaged groups<\/a>\u00a0(SC\/STs). Moreover, we show that when the group is large, the quota may in fact\u00a0<em>improve<\/em>\u00a0leader&#8217;s performance. The improvement in overall performance does not come at a cost of lower allocation to the most disadvantaged group. We argue and provide suggestive evidence that when the group is large, such a quota for the group increases\u00a0<em>within-group<\/em>\u00a0electoral competition in villages. The result highlights that \u201cefficiency\u201d concerns regarding affirmative action may need reevaluation. It further justifies the targeting of electoral quota policy in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/topics\/social-sciences\/india\">India<\/a>\u00a0towards jurisdictions where the group is numerous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"member-author":[157,151],"publication-type":[174],"publication-year":[130],"research-theme":[99],"class_list":["post-4883","publication","type-publication","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","member-author-abhiroop-mukhopadhyay","member-author-sabyasachi-das","publication-type-article","publication-year-130","research-theme-others"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isid.ac.in\/~cecfee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication\/4883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isid.ac.in\/~cecfee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isid.ac.in\/~cecfee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/publication"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.isid.ac.in\/~cecfee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication\/4883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isid.ac.in\/~cecfee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"member-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isid.ac.in\/~cecfee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/member-author?post=4883"},{"taxonomy":"publication-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isid.ac.in\/~cecfee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication-type?post=4883"},{"taxonomy":"publication-year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isid.ac.in\/~cecfee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication-year?post=4883"},{"taxonomy":"research-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isid.ac.in\/~cecfee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-theme?post=4883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}