Religious Identity and the Provision of Public Goods: Evidence from the Indian Princely States

A simple model of how a ruler's religious identity affects public goods provision. * Rulers reduce public goods if private substitutes excludable by religion exist. * Theory tested by exploiting variation in rulers' religion in Indian Princely States. * Muslim-ruled states had lower Hindu literacy but had no impact on Muslim literacy. * Religion of ruler had no impact on railroad ownership or post office provision. This paper describes a simple model of how a ruler's religious identity affects public goods provision. Our primary insight is that rulers reduce public goods expenditures to a grea... Mehr ...