Quality of Governance (QoG) Project
How do we measure good governance?
Governance which is receptive to the interests of specific groups, may be able to better serve the needs of marginalized groups. Yet, such particularized mode of governance may also end up serving special interests, or become clientalistic, that hurts generation of public goods.
Governance that impartially serves the interests of all individuals, may be able to better focus on generation of public goods. Yet, such generalized mode of governance may become insensitive to the specific needs of specific groups, especially the marginalized groups.
The tradeoff between specificity and impartially in governance, only becomes more difficult to manage in large and diverse democracies like India and the United States. How can institutions be designed that are not clientalistic, yet are agile enough to listen to the specific needs of specific groups?
The Quality of Governance project is interested in two interrelated questions:
- What aspects of governance make markets more inclusive?
- How does identity influence governance and market access?
Measuring contractual infrastructure (What aspects of governance make markets more inclusive?) Frictionless markets rest on the ability to write sophisticated contracts. Yet, contracts can not get effectively enforced (and hence lose their value) if the “contractual infrastructure” needed for writing and enforcement of contracts is missing. Yet, how can quality contractual infrastructure be measured? It turns out, existing measures of contractual infrastructure do not always include how inclusive they are. If institutions are effective, but only for a few, such “effective” institutions are nonetheless ineffective for market inclusion. In this project, we are developing novel measures for measuring the inclusivity and the quality of good contractual infrastructure.
Identity capital (How does identity influence governance and market access?) Does belonging to a particular identity influence the access individuals can have to the market and services of the government? If so, can we measure the effect of identity on governance? What is the underlying mechanism through which identity influences and is influenced by institutions and markets? Consider an entrepreneur. When is an entrepreneur motivated to highlight their identity, and what are the effects of using “identity capital” as a currency, on entrepreneurial outcomes and on governance?
The IIMB team:
Prateek Raj
Assistant Professor, Strategy Area
Young Faculty Research Chair
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
Interest: Evolution of Business and Markets, Economic History
Please contact Prateek Raj at prateekraj@iimb.ac.in for more details.
Research Affiliate, IIMB QoG project
Final Year B.A., L.L.B. Candidate
National Law School (NLS)