Misinformation poses serious risks for democratic governance, conflict, and health. This study evaluates whether sustained, classroom-based education against misinformation can equip schoolchildren to become more discerning consumers of information. Partnering with a state government agency in Bihar, India, we conducted a field experiment in 583 villages with 13,500 students, using a 4-month curriculum designed to build skills, shift norms, and enhance knowledge about health misinformation. Intent-to-treat estimates demonstrate that treated respondents were significantly better at discerning true from false information, altered their health preferences, relied more on science, and reduced their dependence on unreliable news sources. We resurveyed participants 4 months post-intervention and found that effects persisted, as well as extended to political misinformation. Finally, we observe spillover effects within households, with parents of treated students becoming more adept at discerning information. As many countries seek long-term solutions to combat misinformation, these findings highlight the promise of sustained classroom-based education.

Despite the positive impacts of gender quotas, concerns remain that women leaders serve as political proxies for male family members. The magnitude of this phenomenon however remains unknown. We develop and validate a low-cost, scalable phone-based measure of proxy leadership in local village councils: does a female politician personally respond to a governance-related phone survey? Phone surveys of over 1,100 local politicians across two Indian states reveal a striking gender gap: female politicians are 37.5% less likely than male politicians to respond to our survey themselves. Our results also highlight significant variation in proxy status among female politicians. Further, an inperson citizen survey (N=969) in a subset of village councils shows that citizens in councils where the representative responded to our survey themselves were also 66% more likely to correctly identify their female leader, thereby validating the phone measure as a robust predictor of proxy leadership. Rather than undermine the effectiveness of gender quotas, our study offers a practical tool that underscores the variation in, and barriers to, substantive representation.

How do electoral quotas designed for one marginalized group affect representation for those disadvantaged along multiple dimensions? I examine how caste-based electoral quotas influence women's political representation in Indian village elections. I suggest that caste quotas enhance women's representation through two reinforcing mechanisms: stratified gender norms across caste groups and reduced political competition in quota-restricted seats. Leveraging quasi-random variation in caste quota assignment across village council seats in Maharashtra, I find that caste quotas increase women's candidacy by 40% and more than double their likelihood of winning office. Drawing on secondary survey data and novel administrative data, I find evidence for mechanisms consistent with my theory. These findings challenge theories predicting uniformly compounded disadvantages at the intersection of gender and ethnicity, demonstrating instead how single-dimensional quotas can generate powerful positive spillovers when electoral institutions interact with social hierarchies.

Governments worldwide regulate political candidacy through various means. This paper examines electoral laws in India that disqualify citizens with more than two children from contesting local government offices. These laws were implemented based on the premise that political officeholders, through their significant influence on their communities, could help shape social norms around family size. Using variation in the law's adoption across states, I employ a difference-in-differences framework to analyze its effects on political candidacy among Muslims, who constitute India's largest religious minority and one of its most marginalized groups. I find that fertility limits reduce Muslim candidacy. However, there is no significant effect on the overall number of candidates and candidacy of other major social groups. I argue that this is due to the dilemma potential candidates face between complying with the law or adhering to social norms regarding family size. Drawing on an original survey of 500 village politicians, I find evidence consistent with my theory. Additionally, the survey highlights that many politically aspiring citizens cope with these limits by fielding their family members. This paper underscores that states' efforts to shape social norms through electoral laws may come at the cost of marginalized groups' political candidacy.

Misinformation can have severe consequences, especially among populations with low levels of digital literacy, education, and access to technology. A large body of literature looks at interventions to counter misinformation, but we know less about the message-level attributes that make particular pieces of information attractive. We field an in-person survey in Bihar, India, with a sample of over 6,000 adolescents to determine what factors influence the sharing of (mis)information. Using a conjoint design that randomizes a piece of information's topic, veracity, transmitter identity, original source, and social endorsement -- each in an online or offline setting with an effective sample size of ~36,000 profiles -- our study reveals three key findings. First, respondents relied on source, social endorsement, and veracity cues when deciding what information to share, with a pronounced emphasis on veracity and accuracy. Second, results revealed a bias against Muslim transmitters of information, but not Hindu transmitters, with Muslim sources being penalized more severely for disseminating false information. Finally, while social endorsement plays a significant role in information sharing, its impact varies between online and offline settings, with respondents placing greater importance on reputation-affecting cues when sharing information in-person. These results demonstrate that religious biases can extend to information processing and the online versus offline context that information is received in can significantly alter choices, demonstrating that focusing on less privileged populations in terms of access to information and digital connectivity can reveal striking findings.

This study explores a crucial aspect of decentralized government: how direct and indirect voting systems for electing executives affect legislator elections. While exist- ing scholarship has examined the incentives and performance of government heads under different voting systems, little attention has been paid to the spillover effects on other elected officials. I argue that direct elections diminish council members’ influence, as executives become accountable to voters rather than council members, thereby reducing the value of legislative positions. Using unique administrative data documenting different stages of the electoral process in Maharashtra, India, I examine how a shift from indirect to direct election of village heads affects candidate nomination (entry), withdrawal (exit), and final candidacy (competition) for council member seats. Direct election of village heads significantly decreases the number of candidate nominations, withdrawals, and total candidates for council seats. These negative ef- fects are amplified in constituencies where the village head seat has different caste quotas than council seats, and disproportionately affect women candidates. This research contributes to our understanding of how institutional design choices create spillover effects across different levels of government and highlights unintended consequences of electoral reforms for legislative representation.

This paper studies how extreme temperatures on both ends of the distribution shape political participation and downstream electoral outcomes. As temperatures across South Asia exceed 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), extreme heat will likely affect elections in the region. Using 2008-2023 state election data from India, we use ERA5-Land data to leverage the quasi-random variation in polling-day temperature to identify the causal impact of extreme heat on political behavior. Extreme heat of 36 degrees Celsius and above reduces male and female turnout. Compared to the modal temperature bin of 27-30 degrees Celsius, temperature variations above and below increase the gap between male and female turnout. Using the case study of one large state in India, descriptive evidence suggests that the time of voting matters: men tend to vote in the morning and evening, whereas women vote in the afternoon. Taken together, climate shocks exacerbate the gap in women's political participation. Furthermore, we find that extreme temperatures decrease winners' vote shares, leading to more competitive elections. We plan to map the effect of heat on other downstream political outcomes, such as changes in the composition of parties and inter-party competition. These findings matter because climate shocks may systematically distort political participation, raising concerns about equity and representativeness in democratic decision-making.