Abstract |
In India, for many empirical questions, states have been the standard unit of analysis and they are a natural starting point for research using official data sources because state governments set political agendas and budgets and administer a wide range of services. The use of more disaggregated district data allows the study of outcomes across regions with similar historical contexts and political regimes. Most district-level studies, however, have relied on cross-sectional analysis because district comparisons over time are complicated by multiple boundary changes. As providing information on boundary changes across districts will facilitate the construction of district-level panel data sets, this article provides data on the composition of all Indian districts over the 1971-2001 period that can enable the construction of district panels. |