Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/263475 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15259
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper estimates the causal impact of electing criminally accused politicians and their nature of criminality on crime in India. We exploit the quasi-random variation in the outcome of close elections between candidates with and without criminal accusations to instrument the share of constituencies in the district won by criminally accused leaders. We find that a standard deviation increase in the share of criminally accused leaders in institutionally weaker states leads to a 4.3 percent increase in crime in districts, including crimes against women. The effect is more pronounced when the leaders are accused of serious crimes, indicating that seriously accused leaders have a detrimental impact on society.
Subjects: 
close elections
elected leaders
criminal accusations
crime
India
JEL: 
D72
D73
K42
O17
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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