"We hope that ongoing research sheds light on how improving law and order can impact welfare measures including economic growth." Nishith Prakash, of the University of Connecticut (USA), spoke during a conference on development economics organized by the Navarra Center for International Development (NCID) of the University of Navarra and the Ramón Areces Foundation.

The expert presented his work entitled, “Do Criminally Accused Politicians Affect Economic Outcomes? Evidence from India,” which analyzes the case of Bihar State, India. The findings of the study reveal that the election of criminally accused candidates lead to roughly 5 percent lower GDP growth per year on average. These estimated costs increased for candidates with serious allegations, multiple accusations and accusations of financial crime.

"One of the most interesting findings," he explained, "was when the effects were shown. We did not have much previous information and there are no theories that anticipate a negative impact. We saw that the consequences began to be visible at the end of the electoral cycle."

"There is a lot of literature that talks about public order and economic growth, but there are not many studies on the factors behind it, which policies can be implemented in a region like Bihar or another with similar challenges. The idea is to “analyze the policies that led to a reduction in crime and how this impacts development," he noted.

According to the expert, all this is related to how bureaucrats and politicians interact: "They are really important agents, especially in developing countries like India. They control many resources and have financial, legislative and executive powers that have an impact. Understanding the relationship between them is crucial."

Education and female empowerment

The University of Connecticut researcher also referred to other work he has done in the field of development economics. Specifically, he spoke about a project on gender equality in education in Zambia, which he undertook together with Karthik Muralidharan of the University of California, San Diego.

"We provided bicycles to girls so they can get to school to study the impact on enrollment and learning outcomes. As a result, enrollment increased by 34% and the gender gap decreased by 40%," he said.

Prakash added that they are currently doing a randomized control trial because participants were not responding to long-term questionnaires. They do not know whether the project led to greater empowerment or greater bargaining power. "However,” he noted, “we must taken into account that measuring women's empowerment depends heavily on the context: it may be different in Zambia and India.”

The NCID Research Workshop is an annual international meeting on development economics for professionals, academics and postgraduate students. It is organized by the Navarra Center for International Development, which is part of the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Navarra.