Existing studies show that village councils led by women result in different policies compared tothose led by men, in India. A dominant narrative is that women-led councils tend to favour policiesrelevant to their own gender. However, given the deep-rooted gender bias in India, the feasibility...

Do smaller local governments provide more for their citizens, especially when they are also held accountable to their citizens? This paper extends the empirical literature on the size of local governments by explicitly exploring one of the key influencing factors – direct local elections, a...

Comparisons of levels of poverty across contexts and circumstances overlook the composition and characteristics of the domain of non-poor. But implications of poverty in terms of compromised welfare as well as its potential for alleviation do depend on the structure and composition of the...