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Journal ArticleDOI

Breaking the Caste Barrier Intergenerational Mobility in India

31 Mar 2013-Journal of Human Resources (University of Wisconsin Press)-Vol. 48, Iss: 2, pp 435-473
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared the intergenerational mobility rates of the historically disadvantaged scheduled castes and tribes in India with the rest of the workforce in terms of their education attainment, occupation choices and wages.
Abstract: We contrast the intergenerational mobility rates of the historically disadvantaged scheduled castes and tribes (SC/ST) in India with the rest of the workforce in terms of their education attainment, occupation choices and wages. Using survey data from successive rounds of the National Sample Survey between 1983 and 2005, we find that intergenerational education and income mobility rates of SC/STs have converged to non-SC/ST levels during this period. Moreover, SC/STs have matched non-SC/STs in occupation mobility rates. We conclude that the last 20 years of structural changes in India have coincided with a breaking down of caste-based barriers to socioeconomic mobility.

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Citations
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TL;DR: This article measured the macroeconomic consequences of this convergence through the prism of a Roy model of occupational choice in which women and blacks face frictions in the labor market and in the accumulation of human capital.
Abstract: Over the last 50 years, there has been a remarkable convergence in the occupational distribution between white men, women, and blacks. We measure the macroeconomic consequences of this convergence through the prism of a Roy model of occupational choice in which women and blacks face frictions in the labor market and in the accumulation of human capital. The changing frictions implied by the observed occupational convergence account for 15 to 20 percent of growth in aggregate output per worker since 1960.

328 citations

ReportDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors measure the macroeconomic consequences of the convergence of occupational distribution between white men, women, and blacks over the last 50 years and show that the changing frictions implied by the observed occupational convergence account for 15 to 20 percent of growth in aggregate output per worker since 1960.
Abstract: Over the last 50 years, there has been a remarkable convergence in the occupational distribution between white men, women, and blacks. We measure the macroeconomicconsequencesofthisconvergencethroughtheprismofaRoymodel of occupational choice in which women and blacks face frictions in the labor market and in the accumulation of human capital. The changing frictions implied by the observed occupational convergence account for 15 to 20 percent of growth in aggregate output per worker since 1960.

252 citations

01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: A comparison of ex-ante measures of inequality of economic opportunity (IEO) across 41 countries, and of the Human Opportunity Index (HOI) for 39 countries is presented in this article.
Abstract: Despite a recent surge in the number of studies attempting to measure inequality of opportunity in various countries, methodological differences have so far prevented meaningful international comparisons. This paper presents a comparison of ex-ante measures of inequality of economic opportunity (IEO) across 41 countries, and of the Human Opportunity Index (HOI) for 39 countries. It also examines international correlations between these indices and output per capita, income inequality, and intergenerational mobility. The analysis finds evidence of a "Kuznets curve" for inequality of opportunity, and finds that the IEO index is positively correlated with overall income inequality, and negatively with measures of intergenerational mobility, both in incomes and in years of schooling. The HOI is highly correlated with the Human Development Index, and its internal measure of inequality of opportunity yields very different country rankings from the IEO measure.

128 citations


Cites background from "Breaking the Caste Barrier Intergen..."

  • ...…published over the last ten years, namely Azevedo and Bouillon (2010); Cervini Pla (2009); Christofides et al. (2009); Corak (2006); D’Addio (2007); Dunn (2007); Ferreira and Veloso (2006); Grawe (2004); Hnatkovskay et al. (2012); Hugalde (2004); Nuñez and Miranda (2006); and Piraino (2007)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a unique son-father matched data that is representative of the entire adult male population (aged 20-65) in India was used to document the evolution of intergenerational transmission of educational attainment in India over time, among different castes, and states for the birth cohorts of 1940-85.
Abstract: Using nationally representative and publicly available India Human Development Survey (IHDS), we create a unique son-father matched data that is representative of the entire adult male population (aged 20-65) in India. We use this data to document the evolution of intergenerational transmission of educational attainment in India over time, among different castes, and states for the birth cohorts of 1940-85. We find that educational persistence, as measured by the regression coefficient of fathers’ education as a predictor of schooling in the next generation, has declined over time. This implies increases in average educational attainment are driven primarily by increases among children of less educated fathers. However, we do not find such declining trend in the correlation between sons and fathers education, another commonly used measure of persistence. To understand the source of such a discrepancy between the two measures of educational persistence we decompose the intergenerational correlation and find that although persistence has declined at the lower end of fathers’ educational distribution, it has increased at the top end of the fathers’ educational distribution.

124 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is found that educational persistence, as measured by the regression coefficient of father's education as a predictor of son’s education, has declined over time, which implies that increases in average educational attainment are driven primarily by increases among children of less-educated fathers.
Abstract: Using the nationally representative India Human Development Survey (IHDS), we create a unique son-father matched data set that is representative of the entire adult male population (aged 20-65) in India. We use these data to document the evolution of intergenerational transmission of educational attainment in India over time, among different castes and states for the birth cohorts of 1940-1985. We find that educational persistence, as measured by the regression coefficient of father's education as a predictor of son's education, has declined over time. This implies that increases in average educational attainment are driven primarily by increases among children of less-educated fathers. However, we do not find such a declining trend in the correlation between educational attainment of sons and fathers, which is another commonly used measure of persistence. To understand the source of such a discrepancy between the two measures of educational persistence, we decompose the intergenerational correlation and find that although persistence has declined at the lower end of the fathers' educational distribution, it has increased at the top end of that distribution.

112 citations


Cites background or methods or result from "Breaking the Caste Barrier Intergen..."

  • ...15In the supplement to their paper, Hnatkovskay et al (2012) report the sample sizes for each round of the NSS....

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  • ...In contrast to the NSS and the NFHS, the IHDS data has another question regarding the education of household head’s father (irrespective of the father living in the household or not).(12) This helps us to identify fathers’ education for household heads who constitute more than 60 percent of the male respondents in the 20-65 age group....

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  • ...For both rounds they document an unusually high level of regression of education attainments of children with almost 50 (63 for SC/ST) percent of the children of highly educated parents getting less education than their parents (see Table 5, Hnatkovskay et al., 2012)....

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  • ...B).13,14 In comparison, Hnatkovskay et al. (2012), who use several rounds of the NSS, were able to identify father’s education for less than 15 percent of the male aged 16-65 interviewed in the NSS using their sample selection procedure.15 The above issue is of practical as well as theoretical…...

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  • ...…young adults (Jalan and Murgai, 2008) or giving a cross -sectional estimate based on a sample that is not representative of the adult population (Hnatkovskay et al., 2012).3’4 In this paper we address this issue by creating a unique father-son matched data, using the nationally representative…...

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References
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Book
01 Jan 1957
TL;DR: The second edition of "The Economics of Discrimination" has been expanded to include three further discussions of the problem and an entirely new introduction which considers contributions made by others in recent years and some of the more important problems remaining as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: This second edition of Gary S. Becker's "The Economics of Discrimination" has been expanded to include three further discussions of the problem and an entirely new introduction which considers the contributions made by others in recent years and some of the more important problems remaining. Mr. Becker's work confronts the economic effects of discrimination in the market place because of race, religion, sex, color, social class, personality, or other non-pecuniary considerations. He demonstrates that discrimination in the market place by any group reduces their own real incomes as well as those of the minority. The original edition of "The Economics of Discrimination" was warmly received by economists, sociologists, and psychologists alike for focusing the discerning eye of economic analysis upon a vital social problem-discrimination in the market place. "This is an unusual book; not only is it filled with ingenious theorizing but the implications of the theory are boldly confronted with facts. . . . The intimate relation of the theory and observation has resulted in a book of great vitality on a subject whose interest and importance are obvious."-M.W. Reder, "American Economic Review" "The author's solution to the problem of measuring the motive behind actual discrimination is something of a "tour de force." . . . Sociologists in the field of race relations will wish to read this book."-Karl Schuessler, "American Sociological Review"

3,219 citations

Book
01 Jan 1985
TL;DR: In this paper, a model of the transmission of earnings, assets, and consumption from parents to descendants is developed, assuming utility-maximizing parents who are concerned about the welfare of their children.
Abstract: This paper develops a model of the transmission of earnings, assets, and consumption from parents to descendants. The model assumes utility-maximizing parents who are concerned about the welfare of...

2,032 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: For example, this article showed that the intergenerational correlation in long-run income is at least 0.4, indicating dramatically less mobility than suggested by earlier research, indicating less mobility.
Abstract: Social scientists and policy analysts have long expressed concern about the extent of intergenerational income mobility in the United States, but remarkably little empirical evidence is available. The few existing estimates of the intergenerational correlation in income have been biased downward by measurement error, unrepresentative samples, or both. New estimates based on intergenerational data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics imply that the intergenerational correlation in long-run income is at least 0.4, indicating dramatically less mobility than suggested by earlier research. Copyright 1992 by American Economic Association.

1,710 citations


"Breaking the Caste Barrier Intergen..." refers result in this paper

  • ...This is similar to the findings of Solon (1992) for the US....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a benchmark measure of intergenerational mobility commonly used in U.S. studies is described, and a theoretical framework for interpreting cross-country differences in intergenerous mobility is presented.
Abstract: International studies of the extent to which economic status is passed from one generation to the next are important for at least two reasons. First, each study of a particular country characterizes an important feature of that country’ s income inequality. Second, comparisons of intergenerational mobility across countries may yield valuable clues about how income status is transmitted across generations and why the strength of that intergenerational transmission varies across countries. The e rst section of this paper explains a benchmark measure of intergenerational mobility commonly used in U.S. studies. The second section summarizes comparable empirical e ndings that have accumulated so far for countries other than the United States. The third section sketches a theoretical framework for interpreting cross-country differences in intergenerational mobility.

688 citations


"Breaking the Caste Barrier Intergen..." refers background or result in this paper

  • ...Excellent overviews of the cross-country evidence on income as well as other indicators of social mobility (including education) can be found in Solon (2002) and Blanden (2009)....

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  • ...In fact by the end of our sample period the estimates are much closer to the typical numbers around 0.45 that are reported for the USA by a number of different studies (see Solon, 2002)....

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Posted Content
TL;DR: The authors found that the relationship between current and lifetime earnings departs substantially from the textbook errors-in-variables model in ways that vary systematically over the life cycle, which can enable more appropriate analysis of and correction for errors in variance bias in a wide range of research that uses current earnings to proxy for lifetime earnings.
Abstract: Researchers in a variety of important economic literatures have assumed that current income variables as proxies for lifetime income variables follow the textbook errors-in-variables model. In an analysis of Social Security records containing nearly career-long earnings histories for the Health and Retirement Study sample, we find that the relationship between current and lifetime earnings departs substantially from the textbook model in ways that vary systematically over the life cycle. Our results can enable more appropriate analysis of and correction for errors-in-variables bias in a wide range of research that uses current earnings to proxy for lifetime earnings.

687 citations


"Breaking the Caste Barrier Intergen..." refers background or methods in this paper

  • ...We address this by using the same approaches and instruments that were developed and implemented in the intergenerational mobility literature by Haider and Solon (2006) and Lee and Solon (2009). We discuss them in greater detail in Section 3....

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  • ...Moreover, as pointed out by Haider and Solon (2006), an additional problem with using short run measures for children’s income is the systematic heterogeneity in income growth over the life cycle....

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  • ...We address this by using the same approaches and instruments that were developed and implemented in the intergenerational mobility literature by Haider and Solon (2006) and Lee and Solon (2009)....

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  • ...…considerable work on intergenerational mobility in the U.S. and other industrial countries (see Becker and Tomes (1986), Behrman and Taubman (1985), Haider and Solon (2006), amongst others), corresponding work on developing countries has been relatively limited.1 Furthermore, due to different…...

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  • ...Moreover, as pointed out by Haider and Solon (2006), an additional problem with using short run measures for children’s income is the systematic heterogeneity in income growth over the life cycle. In particular, individuals with higher lifetime income also tend to have steeper income trajectories. As a result, early in the lifecycle, current income gaps between those with high lifetime incomes and those with low lifetime incomes tend to understate their lifetime income differences while current income gaps later in the lifecycle overstate the lifetime income gaps. We follow Lee and Solon (2009) to address these issues by (a) introducing controls for children’s age to account for the stage of the life-cycle at which the income is observed; (b) introduce an interaction between parents’s income and children’s age to account for the systematic heterogeneity in the profiles; and (c) by instrumenting parents’s income with household consumption expenditure and household size to mitigate the measurement error associated with using daily wage data....

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