Working Papers

Divine Intervention? Religious Organizations and Public Service Delivery in India 

(with Kartikeya Batra)

Coverage: The IndianEXPRESS

Abstract: Religion and state are deeply intertwined across societies, yet we know relatively little about how religious institutions influence state functions, particularly public service delivery. We examine this question in Punjab, India, in the context of deras, locally embedded religious organizations typically led by an influential figurehead. Using a geocoded, in-person primary census of 6,100 villages linked to data on government-provided public amenities, we instrument dera presence with distance to birth locations of historical religious leaders to estimate its causal effect on state service delivery. Villages with deras experience an increase in government services, driven primarily by health and education amenities, with notable effects at mid-levels of governance like state and district governments. Data from a survey of village council members across 670 villages suggests that deras engage with the state through informal financial arrangements to supplement government functions and by addressing information asymmetries. These findings suggest that religious organizations may play a complementary role in state service delivery, although the broader political and social consequences of such involvement remain unclear.

The Logic of Conflict Extension: Political Entrepreneurship by Entrenched Parties

(with Kartikeya Batra and Neeraj Prasad)

Abstract: Scholarship treats political entrepreneurship as a gamble of peripheral actors seeking to disrupt the political order. This paper argues that it is also a routine strategy of entrenched parties, and that structural position decides how each actor uses it. Entrenched parties, anchored by established bases, are risk-averse: they introduce issues that are politically novel yet socially consensual, broadening the agenda while reinforcing the prevailing alignment, a strategy we call conflict extension. New entrants, with no base to protect, are reward-seeking: they introduce issues that crosscut the alignment in order to shift it. We test these expectations with a conjoint survey experiment fielded during the 2025 state elections in Bihar, India. Two entrenched parties drawn from opposite sides of the dominant cleavage field the positions their cores can bear and collect reward only where a base-safe position also draws the persuadable target; the new entrant takes the largest reward available in every bloc and forgoes it only where taking it would deepen the cleavage it seeks to displace. The entrenched parties’ positions reinforce the dominant alignment; the entrant’s crosscut it. The reproduction of a partisan alignment, no less than its transformation, can be the deliberate product of issue innovation.

Work in Progress

The Financial and Psychological Relief of Insolvency 

(with Stephanie Ben-Ishai, Zachary Irving, Sheisha Kulkarni, Jessica Montgomery) 

Abstract: By relieving individuals from crippling debt, bankruptcy has been shown to increase homeownership, annual earnings, employment, and promote the creation of new businesses. In addition to improving filers’ future financial outcomes, bankruptcy may also improve psychological wellbeing by relieving financial stress. However, despite the benefits that insolvency offers, many low-income debtors lack access to bankruptcy due to costs, technological barriers, and stigma. We conduct, to our knowledge, the first Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) to examine whether lowering the financial barriers to insolvency improves access to this important financial institution for low-income debtors. We will use our RCT to achieve three aims: 1) Estimate a demand curve for bankruptcy and use this curve to estimate the effects of bankruptcy reforms on economic welfare, 2) determine the effects of low-cost bankruptcy on long-term credit and financial outcomes, 3) test whether bankruptcy alleviates the psychological effects of poverty on mental health, life satisfaction, and moment-to-moment experience and happiness. In partnership with a licensed insolvency trustee (LIT) in Canada, we randomly subsidize potential filers with $1,000 toward bankruptcy or consumer proposal filing fees. A separate treatment arm will offer debtors a surprise subsidy after they have decided to file so that we can separately identify income effects from the economic effect of lowering the financial barrier to access bankruptcy. We also use moment-to-moment experience sampling and sub-clinical questionnaires to track participants’ stream of consciousness and mental health throughout the filing process, to determine whether debt relief improves wellbeing by relieving financial stress.  

Women’s Decision-making in Local Governance 

(with Diwakar Kishore)