Gender and Public Goods Provision in Tamil Nadu's Village Governments

Using data from 144 village-level governments in India's Tamil Nadu state, we investigate 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, we find 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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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gajwani, Kiran, Zhang, Xiaobo
Format: Journal Article biblioteca
Language:en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2015-07
Subjects:gender, public goods provision, local governance, village government, gender reservations, gender equality, gram panchayats,
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25841
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