Voters in India are more vigilant in monitoring government at the local than at the national level. In state assembly elections voters reward incumbents for local income growth, and punish them for a rise in inequality, over their entire term in office. But in national elections voters behave...

Pigou's conjecture was that under costly taxation public expenditures should not reach the point where marginal benefits equal marginal costs. In the treatment here, public expenditures (and environmental protection) may provide public goods for consumption but also collective inputs for...

A change in the transport sector's current approach to selecting rural road investments is warranted. A proposed approach builds on some of the poverty-focused "hybrid" methods found in recent rural road appraisals, recognizing that an important share of the benefits to the poor from rural roads...

Empirical results from India suggest that politicians exert greater effort in managing public works during election years. Surprisingly, there is no evidence of a populist spending spree to sway voters just before elections