India – Spatial RDD

In this project, I try to determine if differing government styles in colonial India had a long-term effect on economic development. During colonial times, Great Britain governed India in two ways. In some areas, the local Indian rulers were overthrown, and British governors were put in power. In other areas, the local rulers were allowed to remain in power if they signed a treaty of vassalage to the British. The former areas were called British provinces and the latter were called princely states. I compare modern areas of India which were located in former British provinces with those located in the former princely states.

To tackle this problem, I make use of a spatial regression discontinuity design (spatial RDD). The main programs used are Python and ArcGIS.

This project is based on a paper by Lakshimi Iyer.