<description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style= "font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: #10333b; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"&gt; Our fourth scholar in the series is &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style= "font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;" href="https://sites.google.com/view/asadtariq/"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"&gt;Asad Tariq&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style= "font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: #10333b; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"&gt;, who is a doctoral candidate&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style= "font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: #212121;"&gt;in Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style= "font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: #212121;"&gt; His&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style= "font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: #212121;"&gt;research focuses on the political economy of development, with a particular interest in religion, politics and public service delivery in India.&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style= "font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: #10333b;"&gt;&lt;span style= "border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"&gt; We spoke about his job market paper titled,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;em style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;"&gt; &lt;u&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;a href= "https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VEu8EuueL5YMOyW0RqaDP9lhcuX_dH7K/view" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;span style= "color: windowtext;"&gt;Constituencies of Change: Electoral Redistricting and Public Goods Provision in India&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: #10333b; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"&gt; We talked about the 2008 delimitation exercise, especially at the state level, gerrymandering, the median voter versus swing voters and ethnic groups, public service delivery for minorities, especially Muslims, and much more.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Recorded September 5th, 2025.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Read a &lt;a href= "https://www.mercatus.org/ideasofindia/asad-tariq-electoral-redistricting-and-public-goods-provision-india"&gt;full transcript&lt;/a&gt; enhanced with helpful links.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Connect with Ideas of India&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://twitter.com/ideasofindia"&gt;Follow us on X&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Follow &lt;a href= "https://twitter.com/srajagopalan"&gt;Shruti&lt;/a&gt; on X&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Follow &lt;a href="https://x.com/asad__tariq"&gt;Asad&lt;/a&gt; on X&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Click &lt;a href= "https://mercatus.tfaforms.net/5060934"&gt;&lt;span class= "s2"&gt;here&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Timestamps&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;(00:00:00) - Intro&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;(00:02:42) - Packing and Cracking&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;(00:05:10) - From Theory to Ballots&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;(00:06:40) - Median Voter Logic: A Mechanism in Play&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;(00:08:24) - Delimitation as an exogenous shock?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;(00:19:06) - Does Identity of the elected leader matter?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;(00:20:10) - Enter: Swing Voters&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;(00:23:07) - Schools, Roads, and Wires: Evidence on Public Goods&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;(00:26:21) - Crunching the Numbers&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;(00:29:44) - Drawing the Lines: Gerrymandering Then and Now&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;(00:37:40) - Policy Stakes and What's Next&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;(00:41:45) - Outro&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Ideas of India

Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Asad Tariq on Electoral Redistricting and Public Goods Provision in India

OCT 23, 202542 MIN
Ideas of India

Asad Tariq on Electoral Redistricting and Public Goods Provision in India

OCT 23, 202542 MIN

Description

Our fourth scholar in the series is Asad Tariq, who is a doctoral candidate in Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. His research focuses on the political economy of development, with a particular interest in religion, politics and public service delivery in India. We spoke about his job market paper titled, Constituencies of Change: Electoral Redistricting and Public Goods Provision in India.

We talked about the 2008 delimitation exercise, especially at the state level, gerrymandering, the median voter versus swing voters and ethnic groups, public service delivery for minorities, especially Muslims, and much more.

Recorded September 5th, 2025.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:02:42) - Packing and Cracking

(00:05:10) - From Theory to Ballots

(00:06:40) - Median Voter Logic: A Mechanism in Play

(00:08:24) - Delimitation as an exogenous shock?

(00:19:06) - Does Identity of the elected leader matter?

(00:20:10) - Enter: Swing Voters

(00:23:07) - Schools, Roads, and Wires: Evidence on Public Goods

(00:26:21) - Crunching the Numbers

(00:29:44) - Drawing the Lines: Gerrymandering Then and Now

(00:37:40) - Policy Stakes and What's Next

(00:41:45) - Outro