81236 enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database Direct Democracy and Local Public Goods: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia Author(s) Benjamin Olken Contact bolken@mit.edu Country Indonesia Organizing Theme Voice and Agency Status Completed Intervention Category Community Driven Development Sector Social Development This article presents an experiment in which 49 Indonesian villages were randomly assigned to choose development projects through either representative-based meetings or direct election-based plebiscites. Plebiscites resulted in dramatically higher satisfaction among villagers, increased knowledge about the project, greater perceived benefits, and higher Abstract reported willingness to contribute. Changing the political mechanism had much smaller effects on the actual projects selected, with some evidence that plebiscites resulted in projects chosen by women being located in poorer areas. The results suggest that direct participation in political decision making can substantially increase satisfaction and legitimacy. Gender Connection Gender Focused Intervention Gender Outcomes Participation or voice in community, women's representation in politics IE Design Clustered Randomized Control Trial (Clustered at village level) The Decamatan Development Program requires that each village follow a political process that results in two proposed infrastructure proposals, one "general project" proposed by the town at large and one "women's project" proposed exclusively by women. The Intervention experiment randomly allocates villages to choose the project either through a standard KDP decision-making process oat representative village meetings, or through direct elections where all villagers vote for the preferred projects. The list of potential projects to be voted on was produced by an identical agenda setting process in both treatments. Intervention Period September 2005-January 2006 The study takes place in 49 Indonesian Villages from 3 subdistricts in different parts of Sample population rural Indonesia. The study compares the outcomes of villages who arrive at projects through an election to Comparison conditions projects that are decided upon by the traditional elite-dominated meetings. Unit of analysis Village and Individual Level Evaluation Period Data was collected at baseline and after the conclusion of the project selection Last updated: 14 August 2013 1 enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database For the general project, the election did not affect the type of project selected. For the women's project, the election resulted in projects located in poorer areas. However, the elections resulted in projects that were closer to the stated preferences of village elites. The election process resulted in substantial increases in villagers overall satisfaction with the Results project (with improvements in satisfaction indices ranging from 10-18 p.p.). There were increases in perceptions of perceived fairness and legitimacy. These findings hold even for general projects where the projects themselves remain unchanged. Villagers also indicate they are more likely to contribute voluntary labor or materials to projects where elections were held. Because the study was conducted in only 3 provinces in Indonesia it may lack external Primary study limitations validity. The study also only looked at short-term outcomes. Funding Source DFID, the World Bank, The Indonesian Decentralization Support Facility Olken, B. A. (2010). Direct democracy and local public goods: Evidence from a field Reference(s) experiment in Indonesia. American Political Science Review, 104(2), 243-267. Link to Studies http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FPSR%2FPSR104_02% 2FS0003055410000079a.pdf&code=6de5901c765b238d589a28152cc6112a Microdata Last updated: 14 August 2013 2