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Publications by Author: Rohini%20Pande

2015
Pande, Rohini. 2015. “Keeping Women Safe: Addressing the Root Causes of Violence Against Women in South Asia.” Harvard Magazine. Publisher's Version Abstract

In December 2012, thousands of protesters flooded the streets of cities across India, demanding a safer environment for women. A 23-year-old female student had died from injuries sustained 13 days earlier, when six men raped and savagely beat her on a Delhi bus. The case gained international attention, and since then South Asian media have reported dozens more horrifying instances of violence against women, several involving tourists: a Danish woman was gang-raped in Delhi after asking for directions back to her hotel, and an American was raped while hitchhiking in the Himalayas.

2008
Pande, Rohini, Lori Beaman, Raghabendra Chattopadhyay, Esther Duflo, and Petia Topalova. 2008. “Powerful Women: Does Exposure Reduce Prejudice?”. Abstract
Female leadership remains strikingly low in most democracies, and voter preferences are often suggested as a likely explanation. In this paper, we present experimental evidence from India which suggests that, on average, villagers, especially men, are prejudiced against female leaders. For example, men rate a hypothetical leadership speech more negatively when the speaker's voice is experimentally manipulated to be female, rather than male. However, randomly assigned exposure to a female leader (due to mandated political representation for women) reduces such prejudice by 50-100% depending on the measure. We also provide suggestive evidence that prejudice influences perceptions of actual performance. Despite outperforming their male counterparts on many dimensions of performance, first time women leaders receive worse evaluations. Consistent with our experimental evidence that exposure reduces prejudice, second time female leaders are rated at par with male leaders.
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2007
Pande, Rohini, and Abhijit Banerjee. 2007. “Parochial Politics: Ethnic Preferences and Politician Corruption”. Abstract
This paper examines how increased voter ethnicization, defined as a greater preference for the party representing one's ethnic group, affects politician quality. If politics is characterized by incomplete policy commitment, then ethnicization reduces average winner quality for the pro-majority party with the opposite true for the minority party. The effect increases with greater numerical dominance of the majority (and so social homogeneity). Empirical evidence from a survey on politician corruption that we conducted in North India is remarkably consistent with our theoretical predictions.
Also Faculty Research Working Papers Series, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
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Pande, Rohini, Tim Besley, and Vijayendra Rao. 2007. “Just Rewards? Local Politics and Public Resource Allocation in South India”. Abstract

This paper uses data on elected village councils in South India to examine the political economy of public resource allocation. We find that the pattern of policy-making reflects politicians' self-interest. Elected councillors benefit from improved personal access to public resources. In addition, the head councillor's group identity and residence influences public resource allocation. While electoral incentives do not eliminate politician opportunism, voters appear able to use their electoral clout to gain greater access to public resources.

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