09 April, 2018Introduction to e-Symposium: Women and work in India
Female labour force participation in India has been low and stagnant over the past few decades. I4I Editor Farzana Afridi is hosting an e-symposium to examine research that explores the reasons for t...
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Farzana Afridi 
03 March, 2017
What happens when investments targeting women’s microbusinesses go to men?
Several studies find that male-operated – but not female-operated – microenterprises benefit from access to grants or loans. But these analyses overlook that female entrepreneurs often reside with...
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Arielle Bernhardt Erica Field Rohini Pande Natalia Rigol
- 02 May, 2018
The persistence of caste in India: An economic explanation
Despite many efforts by the government and by civic institutions, the caste system continues to have a firm hold on Indian society. This column presents an economic explanation for this persistence a...
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Kaivan Munshi
- 16 July, 2012
How gender inclusive is MNREGA in practice?
MNREGA mandates that a third of all workers under the programme should be women. But how gender inclusive has the implementation of the Act been? This column uses nationally representative data to an...
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Upasak Das
- 21 November, 2014
Did caste-based reservation increase schooling of beneficiaries?
Reservation for backward classes in schools has been in place in India since independence. This column uses a unique historical event that took place in the 1970s in India to evaluate the effect of a...
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Guilhem Cassan
- 16 October, 2014
Social Identity and Aspirations
The project is a field experiment in India that investigates whether the norms associated with one’s social identity affect one’s aspirations, beliefs, and eventual outcomes. Project exploits cues...
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Priya Mukherjee
- 31 July, 2014
Tell us what you really think: Measuring gender attitudes in Haryana
Changing basic gender attitudes may be crucial for alleviating discrimination against women and improving gender outcomes. This column describes a unique measurement tool developed by social psycholo...
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Diva Dhar Tarun Jain Seema Jayachandran
- 18 July, 2014
Religion, minority status and trust
A key factor that drives segmentation in societies is group identities along various dimensions. This column seeks to understand the effects of identity on individual behaviour. Based on an artefactu...
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Minhaj Mahmud Pushkar Maitra Ananta Neelim
- 14 May, 2014
Quotas and schooling decisions
Affirmative action, as an instrument for bridging inequalities across social groups, has been a contentious issue for decades. This column analyses the impact of reservation in public sector jobs and...
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Gaurav Khanna
- 03 April, 2014
Do wives care more about household welfare than husbands?
Social science literature shows that women promote household welfare more than men. This column examines if consumption choices of husbands and wives change, depending on whether they have to work to...
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Utteeyo Dasgupta Subha Mani
- 24 February, 2014
Rape: The shame of a nation
The proliferating number of rape incidents in India is chilling. This column discusses the various perspectives on the causes of rape, and the economic, social and legal factors that play a role in t...
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Chandan Kumar Jha Sudipta Sarangi
- 21 February, 2014
Why so few women in politics in India?
Women are severely under-represented in political positions across the world. This column analyses constituency-level election data from Indian states to explore why this is so. It finds that while w...
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Mudit Kapoor Shamika Ravi
- 02 January, 2014
How backward are 'Other Backward Classes' in India?
Since reservations were provided in government bodies for lower castes in the early 90s, ‘Other Backward Classes’ have been an important force in Indian politics at all levels. Has there been a c...
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Ashwini Deshpande Rajesh Ramachandran
- 04 December, 2013
What explains the stagnation of female labour force participation in urban India?
Over the past two decades, urban India has experienced expansion in women’s education, fertility decline and growth in white-collared jobs. Then why is it that female labour force participation has ...
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Stephan Klasen Janneke Pieters
- 27 September, 2013
Entrepreneurship or survival? Caste and gender of small business in India
Can entrepreneurship be a vehicle for social mobility in India? This column analyses data from micro, small and medium enterprises, and finds clear and persistent caste and gender disparities in virtu...
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Ashwini Deshpande Smriti Sharma
- 23 September, 2013
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Tweets by Ideas4IndiaMost Popular Social Identity Posts
Religion and abortion: The role of politician identity
Debates surrounding abortion invoke both religion and politics. This column examines whether the religious identity of legislators influences abortion rates in the districts in which they are elected,...
- Sonia Bhalotra Irma Clots-Figueras Lakshmi Iyer
- 09 April, 2018
What happens when investments targeting women’s microbusinesses go to men?
Several studies find that male-operated – but not female-operated – microenterprises benefit from access to grants or loans. But these analyses overlook that female entrepreneurs often reside with...
- Arielle Bernhardt Erica Field Rohini Pande Natalia Rigol
- 02 May, 2018
Unity in cricket: Integrated leagues and caste divisions
A growing body of evidence supports the idea that intergroup contact can reduce discrimination. However, different types of contact – collaborative or adversarial – may have different effects. Bas...
- Matt Lowe
- 23 May, 2018