“Despite the considerable attention paid by previous governments to the underdeveloped regions, intra-regional economic disparities are on the rise in Pakistan. While there can be several reasons for exasperating inter-regional inequality across regions, political institutions and politicians may explain a significant size of this inequality. Politicians exercise considerable de facto political power to redirect resources towards their regions which has a substantial cost for least developed regions.

This study aims to understand the economic inequalities and regional disparities across regions through the lens of political economy. Specifically, we are interested to study the impact of dynastic persistence on local economic development in Pakistan. Previous literature argues that the identity of a politician has an impact on domestic policymaking, public goods provision, and economic development. Besides several arguments, there is little empirical evidence to comprehend these theoretical debates. Thus, this study will contribute to the existing literature on political dynasties by investigating the empirical relationship between dynastic persistence and rural development. To make the analysis possible, we will first identify political dynasties at the constituency-level. Subsequently, we will exploit an innovative empirical strategy to investigate the causal economic impacts of political dynasties in Pakistan.”