Utilizing new data on criminal charges against candidates to India's Fourteenth and Fifteenth Lok Sabha elections, we study the conditions that resulted in approximately a quarter of those elected to each legislature facing or having previously faced criminal charges. We show that Indian...

Utilizing data from the power corporation of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, we study the politics of electricity theft over a ten year period (2000-09). Our preliminary results are that electricity theft is substantial in magnitude but that the extent of theft varies with the...