The talk will be delivered by Director of United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) Prof. Kunal Sen
07 July, 2022, Bengaluru: The Office of Research and Publications (R&P) at IIM Bangalore will host a seminar titled: ‘Can political decentralization improve citizen welfare? Evidence clues from a Lab-in-the-Field Experiment in India’, on July 11 (Monday), 2022, at 4:00 pm, in Classroom P22. The talk will be delivered by Prof. Kunal Sen, United Nations University (UNU-WIDER), from the Economics & Social Sciences (ESS) area.
The seminar will be in-person, and all standard Covid protocol will be followed.
About the talk: While developing countries have undergone waves of decentralization, motivated by the scope for strengthening accountability and participatory democracy, progress may be held up by bureaucratic inefficiency, office holder misconduct or other institutional weaknesses. The research replicates such a real-world environment in a controlled lab setting with politician participants in rural India, and provides new evidence on how political decentralization works. Using a modified dictator game, the research mimics steps towards political decentralization by varying treatments across anonymity and a promise. With anonymity and no promise, politicians behave selfishly, but distribute small amounts when forced to make an upfront promise. With personalized interaction and no promise, they give around one third of their endowment. In the personalized interaction, promise treatment, politicians promise and distribute half of their endowment. The research findings shed new light on how and why political decentralization can reduce inequality and improve citizen welfare.
About the speaker: Prof. Kunal Sen has over three decades of experience in academic and applied Development Economics research. He is the author of eight books and the editor of five volumes on the economics and political economy of development. From 2019, he has been the Director of UNU-WIDER, and he is a Professor of Development Economics at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.
Prof. Sen is a leading international expert on the political economy of growth and development. He has performed extensive research on international finance, the political economy determinants of inclusive growth, the dynamics of poverty, social exclusion, female labour force participation, and the informal sector in developing economies. His research has focused on India, East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
He has been awarded the Sanjaya Lall Prize in 2006 and Dudley Seers Prize in 2003 for his publications.
The talk will be delivered by Director of United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) Prof. Kunal Sen
07 July, 2022, Bengaluru: The Office of Research and Publications (R&P) at IIM Bangalore will host a seminar titled: ‘Can political decentralization improve citizen welfare? Evidence clues from a Lab-in-the-Field Experiment in India’, on July 11 (Monday), 2022, at 4:00 pm, in Classroom P22. The talk will be delivered by Prof. Kunal Sen, United Nations University (UNU-WIDER), from the Economics & Social Sciences (ESS) area.
The seminar will be in-person, and all standard Covid protocol will be followed.
About the talk: While developing countries have undergone waves of decentralization, motivated by the scope for strengthening accountability and participatory democracy, progress may be held up by bureaucratic inefficiency, office holder misconduct or other institutional weaknesses. The research replicates such a real-world environment in a controlled lab setting with politician participants in rural India, and provides new evidence on how political decentralization works. Using a modified dictator game, the research mimics steps towards political decentralization by varying treatments across anonymity and a promise. With anonymity and no promise, politicians behave selfishly, but distribute small amounts when forced to make an upfront promise. With personalized interaction and no promise, they give around one third of their endowment. In the personalized interaction, promise treatment, politicians promise and distribute half of their endowment. The research findings shed new light on how and why political decentralization can reduce inequality and improve citizen welfare.
About the speaker: Prof. Kunal Sen has over three decades of experience in academic and applied Development Economics research. He is the author of eight books and the editor of five volumes on the economics and political economy of development. From 2019, he has been the Director of UNU-WIDER, and he is a Professor of Development Economics at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.
Prof. Sen is a leading international expert on the political economy of growth and development. He has performed extensive research on international finance, the political economy determinants of inclusive growth, the dynamics of poverty, social exclusion, female labour force participation, and the informal sector in developing economies. His research has focused on India, East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
He has been awarded the Sanjaya Lall Prize in 2006 and Dudley Seers Prize in 2003 for his publications.