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Project
Understanding the impact of COVID-19 in Patna's slums
This study seeks to address two related questions: First, what are the effects of COVID-19 in urban slum neighbourhoods in India? Second, how are differences in these effects related to these slums’ preexisting conditions? Our prior work on slum communities in Patna suggests that this population is particularly vulnerable to both health and economic shocks...
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Project
Can peer and neighbourhood effects improve maternal health outcomes in rural Bihar: Assessing the role of formal and informal networks
Bihar is a state with a long history of poor maternal health indicators. At the onset of the National Rural Health Mission in 2005, Bihar was listed as one of the High Focus states, and special attention was paid to improving health indicators. Data from the latest round of the Demographic Health Survey indicates that such attempts have not been successful. Policy...
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Project
Child marriage in Bihar: The role of insecurity and migration
According to the recent National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4, 2015-16) data, 39.1% of women in India within the age-group of 20-24 years are married before 18 years. In Bihar, the problem is much more acute with 42.5% of the girls in this age group having been married before 18. Though over the years the situation has improved in the state, some worrying statistics show...
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Project
Social identity, taste bias and under provisioning of public goods
Data shows that public good provision in India decreases with an increase in caste-based fractionalisation. While past research (Banerjee and Somanathan, 2007) documents this association, the causal interpretation and the deeper mechanisms driving the result is an open question. This project aims to plug this gap by identifying the precise causal connection between caste...
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Project
Using automated event detection to reduce data collection costs with an application to the BFRS dataset
The project aims to replicate and extend the BFRS dataset (which measured political violence in Pakistan, based on press reporting, from 1988 to 2011) by using machine learning and algorithm techniques. Incident-level data on political violence has been analysed to study causal linkages between terrorism and economic growth. Such research aids policymakers in formulating...
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Project
Pakistan energy consumption and participation survey
This study addresses a core focus for IGC’s goal of promoting sustainable economic growth: what happens to the relationship between citizens and their representatives when traditional state services in large urban municipalities such as water, electricity and garbage collection are privatised? Preliminary evidence from the IGC study conducted by Haider in 2018 suggests...
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Project
Tracking the economic consequences and response to COVID-19 in Sierra Leone
This project implements a phone survey to capture the economic impact of COVID-19 and policy responses in Sierra Leone. The objectives of the survey are: To get a quick assessment of the economic and social impact of the COVID-19 crisis in Sierra Leone. To track the economic and social impact of the COVID-19 crisis over the next 6 months To possibly evaluate...
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Project
Regional economic spillovers from the South Sudanese civil war: Evidence from formal and informal cross border trade
Just two and a half years after gaining independence in July 2011, South Sudan’s civil war broke out on the 15th of December 2013. Since then, the conflict has fuelled a humanitarian crisis resulting in devastating social and economic consequences. Beyond claiming tens of thousands of victims and leaving more than a third of the country’s population forcibly displaced,...
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Lessons from Public-Private Partnerships in Lebanon
In 2019, the IGC in Lebanon partnered with the High Council of Privatization (HCP) at the Prime Minister’s Office to draw lessons from previous privatisation attempts. Lebanon has traditionally relied on its banking system to attract capital inflows into the local economy. Ongoing political deadlock and regional turmoil have regressed position as a financial hub in the...
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Project
Knowledge is power: A scoping study on women’s safety
Bihar is ranked 3rd highest in terms of the percentage of women (nearly 43.2%) who experienced physical, sexual or emotional spousal violence (NFHS-4, 2017). Moreover, evidence suggests that the actual, as well as the perceived threat of women being attacked outside the home often deter them from working outside (Sudarshan, 2009; Chakraborty et. al, 2018). These alarming...
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...