IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/rdevec/v7y2003i3p378-391.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Discarding Facts: the Economics of Caste

Author

Listed:
  • James G. Scoville

Abstract

In contrast with previous modeling by Akerlof, the author develops a model of a caste system which utilizes the stylized facts that caste occupations are hereditary, compulsory, and endogamous. Some implications of the model are tested with data from the Census of India.

Suggested Citation

  • James G. Scoville, 2003. "Discarding Facts: the Economics of Caste," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(3), pages 378-391, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:7:y:2003:i:3:p:378-391
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-9361.00197
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9361.00197
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1467-9361.00197?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. S. Agarwala, 1967. "Widow remarriages in some rural areas of Northern India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 4(1), pages 126-134, March.
    2. William Darity, Jr. & Ashwini Deshpande, 2000. "Tracing the Divide: Intergroup Disparity across Countries," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 26(1), pages 75-85, Winter.
    3. Ashwini Deshpande, 2001. "Caste at Birth? Redefining Disparity in India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 130-144, February.
    4. George Akerlof, 1976. "The Economics of Caste and of the Rat Race and Other Woeful Tales," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 90(4), pages 599-617.
    5. Eggertsson,Thrainn, 1990. "Economic Behavior and Institutions," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521348911, October.
    6. George A. Akerlof, 1980. "A Theory of Social Custom, of which Unemployment may be One Consequence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(4), pages 749-775.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nair, Malavika, 2011. "Enforcement of nineteenth century banking contracts using a marriage rule," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 360-367.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Subhasish Dugar & Haimanti Bhattacharya & David Reiley, 2012. "Can'T Buy Me Love? A Field Experiment Exploring The Trade‐Off Between Income And Caste‐Status In An Indian Matrimonial Market," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 50(2), pages 534-550, April.
    2. Subhasish Dugar & Haimanti Bhattacharya, 2019. "Can Concerns for Social Status Mitigate the ‘Lemons Problem’? Experimental Evidence from the Indian Caste Hierarchy," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 14(2), pages 151-179, August.
    3. Pieter Serneels, 2004. "The Nature of Unemployment in Urban Ethiopia," CSAE Working Paper Series 2004-01, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    4. Schlicht, Ekkehart, 1992. "On Custom," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 37769, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    5. S. Madheswaran & Smrutirekha Singhari, 2016. "Social exclusion and caste discrimination in public and private sectors in India: A decomposition analysis," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 59(2), pages 175-201, June.
    6. Jonathan B. Berk, 1999. "Statistical Discrimination in a Competitive Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 6871, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Platteau, Jean-Philippe & Camilotti, Giula, 2017. "Eradicating Women-Hurting Customs: What Role for Social Engineering?," CEPR Discussion Papers 12107, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Catherine Bros, 2008. "Power distribution and endogenous segregation," Post-Print halshs-00204974, HAL.
    9. Ira N. Gang & Kunal Sen & Myeong-Su Yun, 2006. "Poverty in Rural India: Ethnicity and Caste," Departmental Working Papers 200634, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    10. Gang, Ira N. & Sen, Kunal & Yun, Myeong-Su, 2002. "Caste, Ethnicity and Poverty in Rural India," IZA Discussion Papers 629, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Oxoby, Robert J., 2003. "Attitudes and allocations: status, cognitive dissonance, and the manipulation of attitudes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 365-385, November.
    12. Hari Bapuji & Snehanjali Chrispal, 2020. "Understanding Economic Inequality Through the Lens of Caste," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(3), pages 533-551, March.
    13. Cassan, Guilhem & Keniston, Daniel & Kleineberg, Tatjana, 2021. "A Division of Laborers: Identity and Efficiency in India," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 540, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    14. J. Mark Ramseyer, 2014. "Litigation and Social Capital: Divorces and Traffic Accidents in Japan," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(1), pages 39-73, March.
    15. Guido Cozzi, 2004. "Rat Race, Redistribution, and Growth," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 7(4), pages 900-915, October.
    16. Frederick Van der Ploeg, 2004. "The Welfare State, Redistribution and the Economy, Reciprocal Altruism, Consumer Rivalry and Second Best," CESifo Working Paper Series 1234, CESifo.
    17. David Austen-Smith & Roland G. Fryer, 2003. "The Economics of 'Acting White'," NBER Working Papers 9904, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. J. Barkley Rosser, 2003. "A Nobel Prize for Asymmetric Information: The economic contributions of George Akerlof, Michael Spence and Joseph Stiglitz," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 3-21.
    19. Willemien Kets & Alvaro Sandroni, 2021. "A Theory of Strategic Uncertainty and Cultural Diversity," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(1), pages 287-333.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:7:y:2003:i:3:p:378-391. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1363-6669 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.