•  
Main Banner Image
Social Identity

When electoral quotas reduce caste-based discrimination

  • Articles

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...

  • Articles

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...

  • Articles

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...

  • Articles
93 posts
Refine list by:
--Please Select--
--Please Select--

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...

  • Articles

Caste and entrepreneurship in India

It is now widely accepted that the lower castes have risen in Indian politics. Has there been a corresponding change in their entrepreneurial activity? This column seeks to answer this question by ana...

  • Articles

Combating gender imbalance through legislation

The rapid decline in the sex ratio in India over the past few decades is an artefact of the historically strong preference for sons over daughters. To address the problem, the Indian government passe...

  • Articles

The power of women's political voice

With more women in power, can India’s women expect to see a fall in violent crime committed against them? This column looks at the effect of a law to mandate minimum numbers for women in public off...

  • Articles

Does caste influence access to agricultural loans in rural India?

Increasing access to agricultural credit in rural India is a major policy priority. This column examines whether farmers’ access to formal agricultural loans depends on their caste. It is found tha...

  • Articles

Casteism and corruption: Beyond political correctness

Sociologist Ashis Nandy’s recent remark that most corrupt people belong to lower castes drew a lot of flak. In this column, Pranab Bardhan shares his views on what he considers to be the two substan...

  • Perspectives

Saving Behaviour in India: Understanding the differences across castes

The past three decades in India have witnessed a sharp reduction in the historically large gaps in the education levels, occupation choices and wages of the backward castes relative to the rest of the...

  • IGC Research on India

Does mother's status affect the child's stature?

Both women’s status and children’s health in South Asia are abysmal. Can a well-defined link be established from women’s status to child health? This column presents results of a study that uses...

  • Articles

Violence against married women in India: Can the data tell us anything?

Violence against women in India has recently been brought to the world’s attention. But for too long the problem has been under reported. This column looks at what the data can tell us.

  • Articles

Infant mortality in times of recession

Can recessions have permanent effects on people’s health in developing countries? This column looks at infant mortality in India and finds that recessions make things worse. The paradox is that this...

  • Articles

Looking for icons to transform social norms

What can be done to reduce the incidence of rape? This article proposes that messages from role models such as cricketers and film stars can change outlooks. It outlines a strategy for measuring the e...

  • Perspectives

India's missing women by age and state

This column presents results of a study that breaks down “missing women” by age across the Indian states. It illustrates that Indian women face the risk of excess mortality at every stage of their...

  • Articles

Recent Contributors

Arvind

Arvind Subramanian

Peterson Institute of International Economics

Justin

Justin Sandefur

Center for Global Development

Dev

Dev Patel

Harvard University

Pankaj

Pankaj Vashisht

ICRIER

Jay Dev

Jay Dev Dubey

National Institute of Public Finance and Policy

Dean

Dean Spears

University of Texas at Austin

Diane

Diane Coffey

University of Texas at Austin

Maitreesh

Maitreesh Ghatak

London School of Economics; IGC Bihar

View all Contributors

Most Popular Social Identity Posts

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...

  • Articles

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...

  • Articles

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...

  • Articles