The week1 assignment is the requires and it has the questions you need answer in the paper, you need look it first.

P O V E R T Y A C T I O N L A B . O R G

CASE STUDY 1: WOMEN AS POLICYMAKERS

Measuring the effects of political reservations

Thinking about measurement and outcomes

This case study is based on: Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Esther Duflo, 2004a, “Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India,” Econometrica 72(5) 1409- 1443.

J-PAL thanks the authors for allowing us to use their paper.

C A S E S T U D Y 1  T H E O R Y O F C H A N G E  A B D U L L A T I F J A M E E L P O V E R T Y A C T I O N L A B

P O V E R T Y A C T I O N L A B . O R G

KEY VOCABULARY

Hypothesis: a proposed explanation of and for the

effects of a given intervention. Hypotheses are

intended to be made ex ante or prior to the

implementation of the intervention.

Indicators: metrics used to quantify and measure

specific short-term and long-term effects of a program

Logical Framework: a management tool used to

facilitate the design, execution, and evaluation of an

intervention. It involves identifying strategic elements

(inputs, outputs, outcomes, and impact) and their

causal relationships, indicators, and the assumptions

and risks that may influence success or failure.

Theory of Change: describes a strategy or blueprint for

achieving a given long-term goal. It identifies the

preconditions, pathways, and interventions necessary

for an initiative's success.

INTRODUCTION

India amended its federal constitution in 1992, devolving

power over local development programs from the states

to rural councils, or gram panchayats (village councils). The

village councils now choose which development programs

to undertake and how much of the budget to invest in

them. The states are also required to reserve a third of

village council seats and chairperson positions for women.

In most states, the schedule on which different villages

must reserve seats and positions is determined randomly.

This creates the opportunity to rigorously assess the

impact of quotas on politics and government: Do the

policies differ when there are more women in

government? Do the policies chosen by women in power

reflect the policy priorities of women? Since

randomization was part of the Indian government program

itself, the evaluation planning centered on collecting the

data needed to measure impact. The researchers then

considered what data to collect and which data collection

instruments to use.

C A S E S T U D Y 1  T H E O R Y O F C H A N G E  A B D U L L A T I F J A M E E L P O V E R T Y A C T I O N L A B

P O V E R T Y A C T I O N L A B . O R G

EMPOWERING THE PANCHAYATI

RAJ

Village councils, known locally as panchayats, have a long

tradition in rural India. Originally, panchayats were

assemblies (yat) of five (panch) elders, chosen by the

community, convened to mediate disputes between

people or villages. In modern times village councils have

been formalized into institutions of local self-government.

This formalization came about through the constitution. In

1992, India enacted the 73rd amendment, which directed

the states to establish a three-tier panchayati raj system.

The village council is the grassroot unit1 of this system,

with each council consisting of councilors elected every

five years. The councilors elect from among themselves a

chairperson called a pradhan. Decisions are made by a

majority vote and the chairperson has no veto power. But

as the only councilor with a full-time appointment, the

chairperson wields effective power.

The 73rd amendment aimed to decentralize the delivery

of public goods and services essential for development in

rural areas. The states were directed to delegate the

power to plan and implement local development

programs to the village councils. Funds still come from

the central government but are no longer earmarked for

specific uses. Instead, the village council decides which

programs to implement and how much to invest in them.

As of 2005, Village Councils can chose programs from 29

specified areas, including welfare services (e.g., public

assistance for widows, care for the elderly, maternity care,

antenatal care, and child health) and public works (e.g.,

drinking water, roads, housing, community buildings,

electricity, irrigation, and education).

1 Village councils, called gram panchayats, form the basic units of the panchayat

raj. Village council chairs, elected by the members of the village council, serve as

members of the block—subdistrict council (panchayat samiti). At the top of the

system is the district council (zilla parishad) made up of the block–council chairs.

EMPOWERING WOMEN IN THE

PANCHAYATI RAJ

The village councils are large and diverse. In West Bengal,

for example, each council represents up to 12 villages and

up to 10,000 people who may vary by religion, ethnicity,

caste, and, of course, gender.

Political voice varies by group identities drawn along these

lines. If policy preferences vary by group identity and if

the councilors’ identities influence policy choices, then

groups underrepresented in politics and government could

be shut out as village councils could ignore those groups’

policy priorities. There were fears that the newly

empowered village councils would undermine the

development priorities of traditionally marginalized

groups such as women. To remedy this, the 73rd

amendment included two mandates to ensure that

investments reflected the needs of everyone in the village

council.

The first mandate secures community input. If village

council investments are to reflect a community’s

priorities, the councilors must first know what those

priorities are. Accordingly, village councils are required to

hold a general assembly every six months or every year to

report on activities in the preceding period and to submit

the proposed budget to the community for ratification. In

addition, the chairpersons are required to set up regular

office hours to allow constituents to formally request

services and lodge complaints. Both requirements allow

constituents to articulate their policy preferences.

The second mandate secures representation in the council

for women. States are required to reserve at least a third

of all council seats and chairperson positions for women.

Furthermore, states must ensure that the seats reserved

for women are “allotted by rotation to different

constituencies in a panchayat (village council)” and that the

chairperson positions reserved for women are “allotted by

rotation to different panchayats.” In other words, they have

to ensure that reserved seats and chairperson positions

rotate evenly within and across the village councils.

C A S E S T U D Y 1  T H E O R Y O F C H A N G E  A B D U L L A T I F J A M E E L P O V E R T Y A C T I O N L A B

P O V E R T Y A C T I O N L A B . O R G

RANDOMIZED QUOTAS IN INDIA:

WHAT CAN THEY TEACH US?

Your evaluation team has been entrusted with the

responsibility to estimate the impact of quotas for women

in the village councils. Your evaluation should address all

dimensions in which quotas for women are changing local

communities in India. What could these dimensions be?

What data will you collect? What instruments will you

use?

As a first step you want to understand all you can about

the quota policy. What needs did it address? What are the

pros and cons of the policy? What can we learn from it?

Discussion Topic 1

Gender quotas in the village councils

1. What were the main goals of the village councils?

2. Women are underrepresented in politics and

government. Only 10 percent of India’s national

assembly members are women, compared to 17

percent worldwide. Does it matter that women are

underrepresented? Why and why not?

3. What were the framers of the 73rd amendment

trying to achieve when they introduced quotas for

women?

Gender quotas have usually been followed by dramatic

increases in the political representation of women.

Rwanda, for example, jumped from 24th place in the

“women in parliament” rankings to first place (49 percent)

after the introduction of quotas in 1996. Similar changes

have been seen in Argentina, Burundi, Costa Rica, Iraq,

Mozambique, and South Africa. Indeed, as of 2005, 17 of

the top 20 countries in the rankings have quotas.

Imagine that your group is the national parliament of a

country deciding whether to adopt quotas for women in

the national parliament. Randomly divide your group into

two parties, one against and one for quotas.

WHAT DATA TO COLLECT

First, you need to be very clear about the likely impact of

the program. It is on those dimensions that you believe

will be affected that you will try to collect data. What are

the main areas in which the quota policy should be

evaluated? In which areas do you expect to see a difference

as a result of quotas?

What are all the possible effects of quotas?

Discussion Topic 2

Using a logical framework to delineate your

intermediate and final outcomes of interest

1. Brainstorm the possible effects of quotas, positive,

negative, and no effects.

2. What evidence would you collect to strengthen the

case of those who are for or against quotas? For each

potential effect on your list, also list the indicator(s)

you would use for that effect. For example, if you say

that quotas will affect political participation of

women, the indicator could be “number of women

attending the General Assembly.”

MULTIPLE OUTCOMES ARE DIFFICULT

TO INTERPRET, SO DEFINE A

HYPOTHESIS

Quotas for women could produce a large number of

outcomes in different directions. For example, they may

improve the supply of drinking water and worsen the

supply of irrigation. Without an ex ante hypothesis on the

direction in which these different variables should be

affected by the quota policy, it will be very difficult to

make sense of any result we find. Think of the following:

if you take 500 villages and randomly assign them in your

computer to a “treatment” group and a “control” group,

and then run regressions to see whether the villages look

different along a hundred outcomes, would you expect to

see some differences among them? Would it make sense to

rationalize those results ex post?

C A S E S T U D Y 1  T H E O R Y O F C H A N G E  A B D U L L A T I F J A M E E L P O V E R T Y A C T I O N L A B

P O V E R T Y A C T I O N L A B . O R G

The same applies to this case: if you present your report in

front of the commission that mandated that you evaluate

this policy, explaining that the quota for women changed

some variables and did not change others, how should they

interpret it? How will they know that these differences are

not due to pure chance rather than the policy? It is

necessary to present them with a clear hypothesis of how

quotas are supposed to change policymaking, which will

help you make predictions about which outcomes are

affected.

Discussion Topic 2, continued

3. What might be some examples of key hypotheses you

could test? Pick one.

4. Which indicators or combinations of indicators

would you use to test your key hypothesis?

USE A LOGICAL FRAMEWORK TO

DELINEATE INTERMEDIATE AND FINAL

OUTCOMES

A good way of figuring out the important outcomes is to

lay out your theory of change; that is, to draw a logical

framework linking the intervention, step by step, to the

key final outcomes.

Discussion Topic 2, continued

5. What are the steps or conditions that link quotas (the

intervention) to the final outcomes?

6. Which indicators should you try to measure at each

step in your logical framework?

7. Using the outcomes and conditions, draw a possible

logical framework, linking the intervention and the

final outcomes.