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Project
Women, work, and the state: Service provision and female labour force
A significant puzzle regarding India's recent economic development is the country's declining rate of female labour force participation (FLFP). According to the International Labour Organization, FLFP in India dropped from 35% (1990) to 27% (2014). This has occurred despite the steady increase of per capita income, education, and urbanisation, while fertility rates are...
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Project
Longitudinal analysis of cooking behaviour in rural Bihar, India
In India, household air pollution from the combustion of solid fuels like firewood, dung, charcoal, and agricultural residues for daily energy requirements accounts for more than 400,000 premature deaths annually. Through Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), the Government of India is engaged in an ambitious national effort to provide access to clean-burning liquefied...
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Project
Gender and mental health in Bihar and India: Developing tools for effective measurement
Preliminary evidence suggests that women in India are more likely to suffer poor mental health than men, impacting their own wellbeing but also that of any children they may have. Understanding women’s mental health in Bihar is especially important: compared with other Indian states, poverty is more common, gender discrimination is sometimes more severe, and the...
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Project
Gender peer effects in the labour market: A field experiment in Indian call centers
Does the gender of one’s co-worker or peers have an impact on labour productivity? In the setting of developed countries, this question has been probed primarily in laboratory/classroom experiments. However, this research question is particularly important in traditionally patriarchal societies where gender is salient. Gender segregation exists in many societies across...
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Project
Safety in numbers? Free public transportation for women and women’s safety
Delhi exhibits low female mobility rates, at the same time, public transport is a hostile environment for women due to widespread sexual harassment. About 89% of female university students in Delhi reported experiencing sexual harassment while travelling in the city. To improve mobility and indirectly improve safety, the Delhi government announced a policy to make bus...
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Project
Gender-based violence and police reform: Evaluating a gender-based violence and sensitisation training programme
The project aims to study the role of policing quality in addressing gender-based violence (GBV). The goal is to assess and showcase the efficacy of a novel policing intervention programme in the Indian state of Bihar, which aims to shape police attitudes towards gender and performance towards GBV crimes. The intervention will provide GBV and gender-sensitisation training...
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Project
Women as agents of change: How has women’s political mobilisation restructured political networks and changed local governance?
The structure of political networks and relationships have consequences for how communities are governed; for the quality of public schools, the construction of infrastructure, and the fairness of access to public benefits. Political networks in Bihar, India vary across the state and are in transition from traditional clientelist relationships and caste-based identities...
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Project
Electricity as a growth constraint for small and medium enterprises in Bihar state, India
The reliability and access to electricity remain a challenge across much of rural India despite rapidly growing grid electrification rates. Small and medium-sized firms represent one-third of businesses in low-income countries but are also the most vulnerable to bad electric supply. A study conducted in four rural Indian states found that only 65% of firms are connected to...
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Project
Do bureaucrats acculturate? Evidence from a long-running natural experiment in India
This project explores the extent cultural norms around corruption and inaction are adopted over time by bureaucrats. By utilising the random assignment of elite bureaucrats to states with varying cultures of corruption and inaction, the team studies how the bureaucrat’s environment influences their preferences, values, and behaviour. Inaction and corruption of...
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Project
Fostering adoption and productive use of electricity in rural Rwanda
More than 700 million people worldwide lack access to electricity, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, which hosts more than 70% of the world’s non-electrified population. To reach the United Nations’ SDG 7 (Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all) by 2030, a big electrification push in Africa is needed. Rural electrification programs,...
Project
Female politicians and economic growth: Evidence from state elections in India
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS7YtrR2yjU&feature=emb_logo The project studies close elections between men and women for election to India's state legislative assemblies. It finds significantly higher growth in economic activity in constituencies that elect women. Given average GDP growth in India of about 7% per year (during the study period), the researchers...