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Does representation affect trust in political institutions?: Evidence from redistricting in India

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  • Kukreja, Rolly

Abstract

Trust in political institutions is considered to be distinctly crucial for maintaining the stability and legitimacy of such institutions. In this paper, I document an important channel through which characteristics of political institutions could affect political trust by studying the impact of a change in representation on political trust. I use the delimitation exercise of 2008 as a source of change in representation of districts within state legislatures in India and respondents’ self-reported confidence in politicians and state government from two rounds of the IHDS (India Human Development Survey) as measures of political trust. Implementing a difference-in-differences strategy with a household panel, the estimates show that households living in districts that gained representatives in the state legislative assembly show an improvement in reported confidence in both politicians and the state government. There is no evidence of a symmetric negative effect for households living in districts that lose seats. Further, this improvement in confidence is accompanied by an improvement in economic performance as proxied by night time luminosity and is associated with an increase in voter turnout as well as a decrease in age and corruption of electoral candidates in gaining districts.

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  • Kukreja, Rolly, 2024. "Does representation affect trust in political institutions?: Evidence from redistricting in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:179:y:2024:i:c:s0305750x24000330
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106563
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political trust; Representation; Political institutions; Redistricting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
    • P48 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies

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