Are female leaders good for education? : Evidence from India

This paper shows that the gender of politicians affects the educational levels of individuals who grow up in the districts where these politicians are elected. Increasing female political representation by 10 percentage points increases the probability that an individual attains primary education in urban areas by 6 percentage points, which is 21% of the difference in primary education attainment between the richest and the poorest Indian states. Caste also matters, as female politicians who won seats reserved for lower castes and disadvantaged tribes are those who mainly have an effect. In addition, both the gender and caste of politicians determine who benefits more from their policies: in urban areas female politicians increase educational achievements of those of their gender and caste. A unique dataset collected on politicians in India is matched with individual data by cohort and district of residence. The political data allow the identification of close elections between women and men, which yield quasi-experimental election outcomes used to estimate the causal effect of the gender of politicians

Are female leaders good for education? : Evidence from India

This paper shows that the gender of politicians affects the educational levels of individuals who grow up in the districts where these politicians are elected. Increasing female political representation by 10 percentage points increases the probability that an individual attains primary education in urban areas by 6 percentage points, which is 21% of the difference in primary education attainment between the richest and the poorest Indian states. Caste also matters, as female politicians who won seats reserved for lower castes and disadvantaged tribes are those who mainly have an effect. In addition, both the gender and caste of politicians determine who benefits more from their policies: in urban areas female politicians increase educational achievements of those of their gender and caste. A unique dataset collected on politicians in India is matched with individual data by cohort and district of residence. The political data allow the identification of close elections between women and men, which yield quasi-experimental election outcomes used to estimate the causal effect of the gender of politicians.

Health and the Political Agency of Women

We investigate whether politician gender influences policy outcomes in India. We focus upon antenatal and postnatal public health provision since the costs of poor services in this domain are disproportionately borne by women. Accounting for potential endogeneity of politician gender and the sample composition of births, we find that a one standard deviation increase in women’s political representation results in a 1.5 percentage point reduction in neonatal mortality. Women politicians are more likely to build public health facilities and encourage antenatal care, institutional delivery and immunization. The results are topical given that a bill proposing quotas for women in state assemblies is currently pending in the Indian Parliament.political identity, gender, mortality, health, social preferences, India.

Health and the Political Agency of Women

We investigate whether politician gender influences policy outcomes in India. We focus upon antenatal and postnatal public health provision since the costs of poor services in this domain are disproportionately borne by women. Accounting for potential endogeneity of politician gender and the sample composition of births, we find that a one standard deviation increase in women's political representation results in a 1.5 percentage point reduction in neonatal mortality. Women politicians are more likely to build public health facilities and encourage antenatal care, institutional delivery and immunization. The results are topical given that a bill proposing quotas for women in state assemblies is currently pending in the Indian Parliament.political identity, gender, mortality, health, social preferences, India

Identity and language policies

The process of individual identity formation is still an enigma, as it is the capacity of public bodies to intervene on it. In 1983 the Catalan education system became bilingual, and Catalan, together with Spanish, was taught in schools. Using survey data from Catalonia and exploiting within and between cohort variation in exposure to Catalan language at school, results show that individuals who have experienced greater exposure to teaching in Catalan are more likely to say that they feel more Catalan than Spanish. Interestingly, the effect appears to be present also among individuals whose parents do not have Catalan origins. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to analyze how policies affect individual identity

Female political representation and economic development in India.

The first substantive chapter of this thesis studies the impact of a politician's gender on the educational achievements of a representative sample of Indian citizens aged 13-39 in 1999/2000. For this purpose I collected a unique and detailed dataset on politicians in India who contested in elections during 1967-2001 and I matched them to individuals by district of residence. These data allows me to identify close elections between women and men, which yield quasi-experimental election outcomes used to estimate the causal effect of a politician's gender. I find that increasing female political representation by 10 percentage points increases the probability that an individual attains primary education in urban areas by 6 percentage points, which is 21% of the difference in primary education attainment between the richest and the poorest Indian states. This framework is then applied in the second substantive chapter to analyze whether politicians in India favour individuals who share their same identity more than the rest in policy making. I do this by matching the politician's identity to the identity of the beneficiaries of educational policies. I focus on the two groups that have lower educational achievements in India: women and the Scheduled Castes and Tribes. I use reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) and variation on female political representation in order to determine the politicians' identity. Results show that caste reservations only have a positive effect on the education received by SC/ST individuals when the proportion of SC/ST population in the district is high. Female politicians increase girls' education in urban areas. In addition when defining identity as gender and caste, results show that SC/ST female politicians increase women's and SC/ST's education while general female politicians increase women's and general individuals' education. Given that development policies are taken by the state governments, in the third substantive chapter I use panel data from the 16 main states in India during the period 1967-1999 to study the effects of having higher female representation in the State Legislatures on public goods provided, laws enacted and expenditure. I find that both the politicians' gender and caste matter for policy. Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe female legislators favour investments in primary education, and in beds in hospitals and dispensaries. They favour "women-friendly" laws, such as amendments to the Hindu Succession Act, proposed to give women the same inheritance rights as men and propoor redistributive policies such as land reforms. In contrast, general female legislators do not have any impact on "women-friendly" laws, oppose land reforms, invest in higher tiers of education and reduce social expenditure

The Effect of Birthright Citizenship on Parental Integration Outcomes

This paper provides empirical evidence on whether child legal status at birth affects the level of cultural integration of immigrant parents with native community. We consider the 1999 reform of the German nationality law, which introduced birthright citizenship for children born in Germany to non-German citizen parents. Our results show that changes in the rules that regulate child citizenship have significantly increased parents’ propensity to establish contacts with German citizens and use the German language. The effect on parents’ integration varies according to the initial endowment of human capital and the level of integration in their local ethnic community.Citizenship Status, Migration, Integration

Identity and language policies

The process of individual identity formation is still an enigma, as it is the capacity of public bodies to intervene on it. In 1983 the Catalan education system became bilingual, and Catalan, together with Spanish, was taught in schools. Using survey data from Catalonia and exploiting within and between cohort variation in exposure to Catalan language at school, results show that individuals who have experienced greater exposure to teaching in Catalan are more likely to say that they feel more Catalan than Spanish. Interestingly, the effect appears to be present also among individuals whose parents do not have Catalan origins. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to analyze how policies affect individual identity.

Education and political behaviour : evidence from the Catalan linguistic reform

This paper studies the relationship between schooling and political behaviour in ethnically divided societies. It draws on survey data from Catalonia to investigate how the introduction in 1983 of a bilingual education system affects political behaviour. Using within and between cohort variation in exposure to Catalan language at school, we find that individuals who have experienced greater exposure to teaching in Catalan are more likely to declare to have voted in 1999 regional elections and to have chosen a Catalanist party

Education and political behaviour : evidence from the Catalan linguistic reform

This paper studies the relationship between schooling and political behaviour in ethnically divided societies. It draws on survey data from Catalonia to investigate how the introduction in 1983 of a bilingual education system affects political behaviour. Using within and between cohort variation in exposure to Catalan language at school, we find that individuals who have experienced greater exposure to teaching in Catalan are more likely to declare to have voted in 1999 regional elections and to have chosen a Catalanist party.