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Empowering women through direct digital wage payments

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A family affair: Family members’ role in female employment decisions in India

A factor behind low female labour force participation in India is family members’ objection to women working. Based on an experiment in Karnataka, this article assesses whether employers can use lig...

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Taking other religions seriously: A comparative survey of Hindus in India

While the study of religion in political science has re-emerged as a growing field of inquiry in the past few decades, most research still focuses on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. What religion is...

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The macroeconomic benefits of gender diversity

The persistent gap between female and male labour force participation comes at a significant economic cost. This article argues that because women and men complement each other in the production proce...

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Empowering women through direct digital wage payments

India’s rate of female labour force participation dropped from 37% in 1990 to 28% in 2015. Can greater control over earned income incentivise women to work and influence gender norms? This article d...

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Creating safe public spaces for women and alcohol consumption in bars

Bars provide on-premise alcohol consumption and serve as social drinking spaces. Kerala, in 2014, shut down all bars serving hard liquor in the state. This article examines the policy change and wheth...

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Fifteen years of gender budgeting in India: A Retrospective

In this year’s Union Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that she will constitute a committee to evaluate 15 years of gender budgeting. It entails looking at the budget through the...

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Coping with a policy shock in rural South India: Social networks as a determinant of trust

Trust and participation in social networks are inherently interrelated. This article identifies the determinants of trust in rural South India, where a mechanism of coping with shocks through transact...

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Closing gender gaps in India: Does increasing women’s access to finance help?

Gender gaps in women’s economic opportunities – in the labour market and in entrepreneurship – have remained high in India. This article analyses the macroeconomic impact of closing gender gaps ...

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Inequality of opportunity among Indian women

Inequality of opportunity (IOp) in any society is that part of overall inequality which arises from factors beyond an individual’s control such as parental education, caste, gender, religion etc. Th...

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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 – Sch...

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Women’s work and fertility: Evidence from 200 years, 103 countries

The declining rates of female labour force participation in developing countries in the last two decades have led researchers to focus on the role of fertility in women’s labour supply decisions. Us...

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Where are the Indian female politicians?

When women win elections, does it inspire other women to run for candidacy or does it convince men to close ranks before the next election?

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The road not taken: Gender gaps along paths to political power

Research and policy efforts towards greater female political participation have largely focused on women’s voting behaviour, and their representation as elected public officials. However, there are ...

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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 ...

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Soumya Kapoor Mehta

Development Economist

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Renana Jhabvala

SEWA Bharat

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Sonal Sharma

SEWA Bharat

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Rahul Ranjan

Institute of Human Development

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Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs

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World Bank

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World Bank

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Most Popular Social Identity Posts

Sex ratios and religion in India and South Asia

In South Asia, low child sex ratios are increasingly an isolated Indian phenomenon. Within India, child sex ratios are ‘normal’ among Christians and Muslims but much lower among Hindus, Sikhs, and...

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Impact of the two-child limit for local politicians

Some Indian states debar individuals with more than two children from contesting local elections. This column finds that while the law has significantly reduced fertility among the general population...

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Political reservation in India: The effect on poverty

Over the last 60 years, India’s Constitution has set aside seats in parliament for people from historically discriminated groups, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. This column documents one...

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