@akkartik @billseitz Good point! My thinking was definitely eurocentric. The short answer is I don't know. When the Indian state overtly distributes on-balance-sheet state resources, do you think its distributions are narrower than private-sector outcomes? 1/

@akkartik @billseitz I suspect not overtly, but I think I make an assumption that may not hold in India, that programs enacted by the central state are more or less executed as intended, no doubt with some degree of leakage due to corruption by those performing the execution or in more local governments to which programs are delegated, but that such leakage would be modest. 2/

@akkartik @billseitz I think (but could be wrong, would be grateful to be corrected) that the argument largely holds at the level of central government enactment, but that corruption at levels of execution or delegation might undo it in India's case. 3/

@akkartik @billseitz I worry that my knowledge here is so casual it may only be stereotype, though. Do let me know if that's the case. I do know that the Indian central state has had some extraordinary successes too (my fintech friends have raved about the Unified Payments Interface). /fin