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The Changing Contours of Inter group Disparities and the Role of Preferential Policies in a Globalizing World: Evidence from India

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  • Ashwini Deshpande
  • Rajesh Ramachandran

Abstract

How persistent are traditional socioeconomic hierarchies in the face of marketization, significant structural shifts in the economy, and increased political representation of lower-ranked groups, and do preferential policies have a role in addressing these inequities among social groups? These questions are answered in the context of India by comparing successive age cohorts of three broad social groups - Scheduled Castes and Tribes (SC-STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and "Others" (proxy for upper castes) - and provide the first disaggregated picture of the evolution of inter-caste disparities since Indian independence in 1947. Based on data from the National Sample Survey (NSS), the results show convergence in terms of literacy and primary education. However, in terms of access to higher education, white-collar jobs, average household expenditure and daily wages, evidence of divergence over time is found. As the NSS does not directly contain data on beneficiaries of affirmative action, we implement an identification strategy that exploits the fact that access to preferential policies are jointly determined by both the age and the social group of the individual. The first- and second-order effects of affirmative action show that extending job quotas to OBCs in 1993 had direct positive effects on access to government jobs, as well as indirect effects on secondary school attainment. [Working Paper No. 267]

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  • Ashwini Deshpande & Rajesh Ramachandran, 2016. "The Changing Contours of Inter group Disparities and the Role of Preferential Policies in a Globalizing World: Evidence from India," Working Papers id:11519, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:11519
    Note: Institutional Papers
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    Cited by:

    1. Diane Coffey & Ashwini Deshpande & Jeffrey Hammer & Dean Spears, 2019. "Local Social Inequality, Economic Inequality, and Disparities in Child Height in India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1427-1452, August.
    2. William Ascher, 2021. "Coping with intelligence deficits in poverty-alleviation policies in low-income countries," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(2), pages 345-370, June.
    3. Mosse, David, 2018. "Caste and development: Contemporary perspectives on a structure of discrimination and advantage," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 422-436.
    4. Ashwini Deshpande & Rajesh Ramachandran, 2016. "Dominant or Backward? Political Economy of the Demand for Quotas by Jats, Patels and Marathas," Working papers 268, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    5. William Ascher, 2023. "Coping with the ambiguities of poverty-alleviation programs and policies: a policy sciences approach," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 56(2), pages 325-354, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    affirmative action; quotas; caste; India; education; occupation; policies; job quotas; government; school attainment; OBCs; age; beneficiaries; NSS; data; affirmative action; Preferential Policies; identification strategy; household expenditure; wages; primary education; higher; literacy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • J78 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Public Policy (including comparable worth)

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