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Improving the Labor Market Outcomes of Minorities: The Role of Employment Quota

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  • Nishith Prakash

    (University of Connecticut)

Abstract

The world's biggest and arguably most aggressive form of employment based affirmative action policy for minorities exists in India. This paper exploits the institutional features of federally mandated employment quota policy to examine its effect on labor market outcomes of two distinct minority groups. My main finding is that employment quota significantly increases the probability of acquiring a salaried job for one minority group and not the other. Their improved employment outcome is also reflected in their higher household consumption expenditure. Overall, the effects vary within each minority group by education, gender, and geographical location. JEL Classification: H40, J21, J31, J45, O10 Key words: Caste, Employment, Wage differentials, Public Sector, India

Suggested Citation

  • Nishith Prakash, 2010. "Improving the Labor Market Outcomes of Minorities: The Role of Employment Quota," Working papers 2012-32, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:uct:uconnp:2012-32
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    Cited by:

    1. Chin, Aimee & Prakash, Nishith, 2011. "The redistributive effects of political reservation for minorities: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 265-277, November.
    2. A. Amarender Reddy & Surabhi Mittal & Namrata Singha Roy & Sanghamitra Kanjilal-Bhaduri, 2021. "Time Allocation between Paid and Unpaid Work among Men and Women: An Empirical Study of Indian Villages," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-17, March.
    3. Elizabeth Kaletski & Nishith Prakash, 2016. "Affirmative action policy in developing countries: Lessons learned and a way forward," WIDER Working Paper Series 052, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Mehtabul Azam & Nishith Prakash, 2015. "A Distributional Analysis of Public–Private Wage Differential in India," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 29(4), pages 394-414, December.
    5. Elizabeth Kaletski & Nishith Prakash, 2016. "Affirmative action policy in developing countries: Lessons learned and a way forward," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-52, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Michael Levere & Purvi Sevak & David Stapleton, "undated". "Policy Changes for SourceAmerica Nonprofit Agencies: Impacts of Eliminating Section 14(c) and Reducing AbilityOne's Required Direct Labor Ratio," Mathematica Policy Research Reports dcbb25f4acc94421a7dd1cd45, Mathematica Policy Research.
    7. Gaurav Khanna, 2020. "Does Affirmative Action Incentivize Schooling? Evidence from India," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(2), pages 219-233, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    caste; employment; wage differentials; public sector; india;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General

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