The Importance of Being Local? Administrative Decentralisation and Human Development

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chaudhary, Latika; Iyer, Lakshmi
• 署名单位: United States Department of Defense; United States Navy; Naval Postgraduate School; University of Notre Dame
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueaf100
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: POLITICAL-ECONOMY; public-goods; HEALTH; delivery; teacher; IMPACT; POWER; incentives; services; absence

摘要

We examine the human development consequences of transferring responsibility for public service provision from state to local governments in India using state-level variation in the timing of administrative decentralisation reforms. We find that devolving responsibility for health and education functions does not improve child mortality or school completion. Further, partial devolution of service responsibility without concomitant authority over personnel or taxation results in a significant worsening of neonatal, infant and under-5 child mortality. Our results cannot be attributed to differential pre-trends, omitted variables bias or heterogeneous treatment effects.