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Tag Search: “caste”

Prevalence and evolution of dowry in India

Dowry payments are an important part of household finances in India, typically exceeding a year of earnings. This article analyses data from an all-India sample of over 70,000 marriages to document fa...

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Traditional hierarchies and affirmative action in a globalising economy: Evidence from India

India has had a long-standing policy of affirmative action to address deep-rooted caste inequities and discrimination. This article compares successive age cohorts of three broad social groups – Sched...

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The 10% quota: Is caste no longer an indicator of backwardness?

The Constitution (124th Amendment) Bill 2019 seeks to provide for the advancement of “economically weaker sections”, through 10% reservation in government jobs and higher educational institutions – a ...

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Learning to cooperate in a culture of honour

In many parts of the world, we observe persistent dysfunction in learning to cooperate around common interests. Cultural differences – ideas of what constitutes an insult and what an appropriate respo...

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Using mobile phones to measure discrimination

One aspect of human well-being that has often been overlooked in survey research on low- and middle-income countries is the extent to which prejudice and discrimination diminish social welfare. This a...

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Whose education matters? An analysis of inter-caste marriages in India

The rate of inter-caste marriages in India was as low as 5.82% in 2011 and there has been no upward trend over the past four decades. This article examines the relationship between inter-caste marriag...

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Political reservations for women and policy influence of low-castes in India

Many policies are designed along a particular identity dimension, such as gender or ethnicity. However, such policies overlook the fact that individuals are associated with several identity dimensions...

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Are Indian girls more educated than their mothers?

While intergenerational educational mobility of father-son pairs in India has been documented to some extent, there is negligible analysis on how daughters compare to their mothers in terms of educati...

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When electoral quotas reduce caste-based discrimination

While affirmative action policies are widely used to tackle the underrepresentation of certain groups, their efficiency is fiercely debated. This article uses novel data from India to explore how quot...

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Social identity and perceived income adequacy

Perceptions about income adequacy, in addition to actual income adequacy, are a critical part of individual well-being. However, factors that determine these perceptions have not been well-investigate...

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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. Based o...

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Estimating intergenerational income mobility in rural India

For developing countries, it is difficult to find income mobility studies that rely on datasets linking parents with their children. Using a panel dataset spanning 1994-2012, this column presents imp...

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