Implementation & Service-Delivery

  1. The Added Value of Local Democracy: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in India (with Abhishek Arora, Siddharth George and MR Sharan), World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, August 2023
  2. Money vs Kudos: The Impact of Incentivizing Local Politicians in Rural India (with Ghazala Mansur, Slesh Shreshta and Nethra Paliniswamy, Journal of Public Economics,Volume 224, August 2023, 104922
  3. Process Policy and Outcome Policy: Rethinking How to Address Poverty and Inequality, Daedalus, Summer 2019
  4. Flies Without Borders:  Lessons from Chennai on Improving India’s Public Health Services (with Monica Das Gupta, R. Dasgupta, P. Kungananthan, TV Somanathan, and KN Tewari), September 2017
  5. On the Frontlines of Scaling-Up: A Qualitative Analysis of Implementation Challenges in Rural India (with Shruti Majumdar and Paromita Sanyal), April 2017
  6. Who should be at the top of bottom-up development: A case-study of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission in Rajasthan, India, (with Shareen Joshi), March 201
  7. “The Anatomy of Failure: Integrating Ethnography with a Randomized Control Trial to Evaluate an Attempt to Deepen Democracy in Rural India,” (with Kripa Ananthpur and Kabir Malik), March 2014
  8. Localizing Development: Does Participation Work?  (With Ghazala Mansuri), World Bank Policy Research Report, 2012
  9. “Just Rewards: Local Politics and Public Resource Allocation in India,” (with Tim Besley and Rohini Pande), World Bank Economic Review, Vol 26, #2, Pp: 191-216, 201
  10. “Who has Voice in a Deliberative Democracy?  Evidence from Transcripts of Village Parliaments in India,” (with Radu Ban and Saumitra Jha), Journal of Development Economic,Vol. 99 #10, Pp: 428-438, November 201
  11. “The Political Economy of Village Sanitation: Capture or Poor Information,” (with Radu Ban and Monica Das Gupta),Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 47 #4, 2010 Pp: 685-700
Participatory-Planning-in-Raichur-district-Karnataka
Participatory Planning in Raichur district, Karnataka

© V. Rao

  1. “Dignity Through Discourse: Poverty and the Culture of Deliberation in Indian Village Democracies,” (with Paromita Sanyal), Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , pp:146-172, Vol. 629, May 2010
  2. “Symbolic Public Goods and The Coordination of Collective Action: A Comparison of Local Development in India and Indonesia,” Chapter 10 in Pranab Bardhan and Isha Ray (editors) Contested Commons: Conversations Between Economists and Anthropologists, Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, 2008
  3. “Governance and the “Karnataka Model of Development’” (with Gopal K. Kadekodi and Ravi Kanbur), Economic and Political Weekly, February 24, 2007
  4. “Governance in the Gullies: Democratic Responsiveness and Community Leadership in Delhi’s Slums,” (with Saumitra Jha and Michael Woolcock),  World Development (forthcoming), 2006
  5. “The Political Economy of Gram Panchayats in South India,” (with Tim Besley and Rohini Pande), Economic and Political Weekly , February 24, 2007
  6. “The Social Impact of Social Funds in Jamaica: A “Participatory Econometric” Analysis of Targeting, Collective Action, and Participation in Community-Driven Development,” (lead author with Ana Maria Ibanez) Journal of Development Studies, vol. 41, No. 5, Pp: 788-838, July 2005
  7. “Participatory Democracy in Action: Survey Evidence From Rural India,” (joint with Tim Besley and Rohini Pande),Journal of the European Economic Association, Vol. 3, No. 2-3, Pages 648-657, April/May 2005
  8. “Conclusion,” (With Michael Walton), Chapter 16 in Culture and Public Action: A Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue on Development Policy, (Vijayendra Rao and Michael Walton, editors) Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2004
  9. “Culture and Public Action: Relationality, Equality of Agency and Development,” (with Michael Walton), Chapter 1 inCulture and Public Action: A Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue on Development Policy, (Vijayendra Rao and Michael Walton, editors) Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2004
  10. “The Politics of Public Good Provision: Evidence from Indian Local Governments,” (with Tim Besley, Rohini Pande and Lupin Rahman), Journal of the European Economic Association , Vol. 2-23, 2004
  11. “Community Based (and Driven) Development: A Critical Review,” (with Ghazala Mansuri), The World Bank Research Observer, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 1-39, 2004