Quota-Based Affirmative Action in Higher Education: Impact on Other Backward Classes in India
TL;DR: While quota-based and other affirmative actions remain on the policy radar of nations faced with social inequalities, there is limited evidence informing policy choices at the national level as mentioned in this paper. This...
Abstract: While quota-based and other affirmative actions remain on the policy radar of nations faced with social inequalities, there is limited evidence informing policy choices at the national level. This ...
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TL;DR: In this paper, a comparative analysis of affirmative action in the United States and reservation policies in India is presented, and the authors conclude that the particular procedures used in applying positive discrimination policies, as well as the general societal context in which they are applied, tend to be more conducive to the generation of overall benefits greater than overall costs.
Abstract: In this book I undertake a comparative analysis of \" affirmative action \" in the United States and \" reservation policies \" in India. These are arguably the two most important national experiences with positive discrimination in favor of historically disadvantaged racial/ethnic minority groups. After reviewing the history of positive discrimination policies in each country, and the debates they have spawned, I develop a comprehensive list of the claims made for and against such policies. Identifying the implied potential benefits and costs of positive discrimination, I elaborate a cost-benefit framework for analysis of the effectiveness of positive discrimination policies. I utilize this cost-benefit framework to develop a general model for the comparative analysis of positive discrimination policies, which I apply first to assess the likely consequences of affirmative action in the US and reservation policies in India. My comparative analysis of the US and Indian cases suggests that the particular procedures used in applying positive discrimination policies, as well as the general societal context in which they are applied, tend to be more conducive in the United States than in India to the generation of overall benefits greater than overall costs. A definitive analysis of the success or failure of positive discrimination policies requires that the claims of benefits and costs be put to the test of empirical evidence. Toward this end I review systematically the available empirical evidence on the consequences of positive discrimination policies in admissions to higher educational institution in the US and India. The evidence suggests that in both countries these policies have generated some, but not all, of the benefits expected by their proponents, as well as some, but not all, of the costs anticipated by their opponents. I conclude that in each country the issue should not be whether to continue such policies – but how best to structure them so as to maximize their net benefits. Preface My interest in writing this book has two primary sources – one going back to the early years of my academic career, and the other much more recent. During the 1960s I spent a total of four years in India, teaching economics at the Indian Statistical Institute and working on problems of economic development planning. During that time I developed great affection for and appreciation of the people and the cultures of India; and for many years thereafter my teaching and research was oriented to the …
39 citations
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TL;DR: This article examined the impact of suspension reforms on out-of-school suspension outcomes for treatment infractions and corresponding racial-ethnic disparities and found that only the first reform lowers out-ofthe-school suspensions outcomes for attendance-specific infractions.
Abstract: In Rhode Island, out-of-school suspensions were excessively and disproportionately used to penalize low-level infractions. To address this problem, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed legislation, effective May 2012, prohibiting out-of-school suspensions for attendance-specific infractions. Four years later, the Assembly passed additional legislation to curb out-of-school suspensions for disruption-specific infractions. This study examines the impact of these suspension reforms on out-of-school suspension outcomes for treatment infractions and corresponding racial-ethnic disparities. To execute the analyses, the study uses student-level administrative data (AY 2009–2010 to AY 2017–2018) from the Rhode Island Department of Education, along with quasi-experimental estimation. The study finds that only the first reform lowers out-of-school suspension outcomes for attendance-specific infractions and corresponding racial-ethnic disparities.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined how Affirmative Action was used to govern access to higher education for the disadvantaged in Uganda and found that affirmative action had a substantial effect on the admission of women into higher education.
Abstract: This article examines how Affirmative Action was used to govern access to higher education for the disadvantaged. In 1991, a gender-based Affirmative Action policy was incorporated into college admission in Uganda. Using existing empirical data at district and college levels, the article accounts for the categories of women for whom the Uganda’s Affirmative Action policy is most effective. The study found that Affirmative Action had a substantial effect. Sixty-six per cent of the sampled population would not have been admitted, had it not been for Affirmative Action. But the policy did not work for the historically disadvantaged; it worked for specific categories of women from specific regions, districts and high schools; on grounds that it was implemented for competitive reasons. The study provides relevant lessons for policy making in countries grappling with the challenges of high socio-economic inequality and higher returns to higher education.
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TL;DR: In this article , the authors investigated whether there is a threshold of level of education for better jobs in India and found that higher secondary education is the threshold required for entry into good jobs.
Abstract: Pandemic and online learning have added to barriers to education. Lack of digital access, difficulty in communication with teachers and lack of peer support create major hurdles in learning for a large proportion of the student population. New entry barriers to better jobs, level and quality of higher education, will add to existing social barriers of gender, caste and nepotism. This will perpetuate a vicious cycle of low education and low incomes. In this paper, we investigate whether there is a threshold of level of education for better jobs in India? We find that higher secondary education is a threshold required for entry into good jobs. We observe increasing returns to private investments in higher levels of education and higher returns to education in the formal sector jobs compared to the informal sector. Will deficits in education during the pandemic reduce investments in education? We study these issues mainly using secondary data from the National Sample Office (NSO). The purpose of this short paper is to build research hypotheses regarding the relation between investment in education and employment, which we highlight in the conclusion.
References
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluate the effect of this program on education and wages by combining differences across regions in the number of schools constructed with differences across cohorts induced by the timing of the program.
Abstract: Between 1973 and 1978, the Indonesian Government constructed over 61,000 primary schools throughout the country. This is one of the largest school construction programs on record. I evaluate the effect of this program on education and wages by combining differences across regions in the number of schools constructed with differences across cohorts induced by the timing of the program. The estimates suggest that the construction of primary schools led to an increase in education and earnings. Children aged 2 to 6 in 1974 received 0.12 to 0.19 more years of education for each school constructed per 1,000 children in their region of birth. Using the variations in schooling generated by this policy as instrumental variables for the impact of education on wages generates estimates of economic returns to education ranging from 6.8 percent to 10.6 percent.
1,462 citations
"Quota-Based Affirmative Action in H..." refers methods in this paper
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TL;DR: This article found that each primary school constructed per 1,000 children led to an average increase of 0.12 to 0.19 years of education, as well as a 1.5 to 2.7 percent increase in wages.
Abstract: Between 1973 and 1978, the Indonesian government engaged in one of the largest school construction programs on record. Combining differences across regions in the number of schools constructed with differences across cohorts induced by the timing of the program suggests that each primary school constructed per 1,000 children led to an average increase of 0.12 to 0.19 years of education, as well as a 1.5 to 2.7 percent increase in wages. This implies estimates of economic returns to education ranging from 6.8 to 10.6 percent.
1,194 citations
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TL;DR: This paper showed that college performance and selectivity have significant effects on earnings and suggested that work that does not include college performance overstates the effect of college performance. But they did not consider the impact of college selectivity on earnings.
Abstract: This article shows that college performance and selectivity have significant effects on earnings. It suggests that work that does not include college performance overstates the effect of college se...
371 citations
"Quota-Based Affirmative Action in H..." refers background in this paper
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TL;DR: This paper used four data sets to assess changes in the relative weights of test and performance-based merit criteria on college enrollment during the 1980s and 1990s and considered their significance for affirmative action.
Abstract: This article uses four data sets to assess changes in the relative weights of test- and performance-based merit criteria on college enrollment during the 1980s and 1990s and considers their significance for affirmative action. Our results support the “shifting meritocracy” hypothesis, revealed by selective postsecondary institutions’ increased reliance on test scores to screen students. This shift has made it difficult for institutions to achieve diversity without giving minorities a “boost” through race-sensitive preferences. Statistical simulations that equalize, hold constant, or exclude test scores or class rank from the admission decision illustrate that reliance on performance-based criteria is highly compatible with achieving institutional diversity and does not lower graduation rates. Evidence from a natural experiment in Texas after the implementation of the “top 10 percent” law supports this conclusion. The apparent tension between merit and diversity exists only when merit is narrowly defined by test scores.
328 citations
"Quota-Based Affirmative Action in H..." refers background in this paper
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TL;DR: In this paper, Courtright presents a detailed account of ganesapuja as recently conducted in a Brahman household in Ahmadnagar and a description of the public Ganesotsava in the same town.
Abstract: tion are more promising areas of inquiry because they do not depend for their explanatory power on our ability to pinpoint precise historical settings. The limitations of this approach is that the myths and rituals appear to be in free fall, suspended somewhere in the historical process without clear and specific contexts, thus giving the interpreter more license to read contemporary interpretive concerns into the texts. The historical contexts are important in principle; it is simply the case that there is so little to go on and that a more interesting conversation with the materials of the tradition is to be found in thematic, structural and theological areas'. Well all right, but the weakness of this method is that everything comes out the same; everything is a 'myth' from the stories in the oldest Puranas to the sectarian inventions of quite recent mahatymyas and sthalapuranas which are likely to be as much the product of individual invention as is Paradise Lost. The Gdtha of Namadeva which works the celebration of Ganesecaturthl into the Balakrsna story, translated not entirely accurately on pp. 148—9, is in such modern-sounding Marathi, is without antecedents and yet so obviously calqued on the usual Krsna mouth story, that it is palpably the creation of some latter-day Namadeva. The well-known tale from Gurucaritra on p. 138 is only well known since Gurucaritra. Although the account given is taken from Ghurye's Gods and men, there is no mention of Ghurye's, I think correct, opinion that the introduction of Ganesa into this episode, which of course has parallels in other linga stories, was a specific invention of Sarasvati Gangadhara. You need an obstacle to stop Ravana taking Siva's pranalinga back to Lanka. Who better than Vighnesvara? Turn him into a small boy to get under Ravana's guard. When Ravana finds that Ganapati has set the linga down and it is now immovable he can do nothing but clout the child and then Ganapati cries and rolls on the ground and dashes off saying 'I'll tell my dad'. The whole episode is comic, verging on the ribald. Admittedly Courtright is careful to refer to this only as a story, but when it is embedded in these chapters devoted to the 'Mythology of Ganesa' one feels that one must be constantly alert to the nature of the evidence offered. Incidentally Mahabalesvara does not, of course, mean 'the great child-lord' and it is never made clear that Gokarn is the place involved. Chapter iv, 'The worship of Ganesa', deals with the god as invoked by poets at the beginning of their works, with the festival of Ganesacaturthl and a modern katha in which Krsna and the syamantaka jewel are laid under contribution to justify a bit of Ganesa-and-themoon story—'an important myth of Ganesa in Maharashtra'. There follows a valuable and detailed account of ganesapuja as recently conducted in a Brahman household in Ahmadnagar (pp. 172-88) and a description of the public Ganesotsava in the same town. The final chapter surveys Ganesa in Maharashtra, the Ganapatya sampradaya of Morgaon and Theur, and finally, the revival of trie Ganapati festival as a political weapon by Lokamanya Tilak. This last is less interesting, rather sketchy and drawn largely from Cashman (The myth of the Lokamanya—more myths!). It has quite a few errors. "The rise of the Maratha empire under SivajT' (p. 224) can hardly be contemporary with Narayana Deva and the demise of Moghul rule; Vishnushastri Chiplunkar is split in two and mixed up with his father Krishnashastri (pp. 228-9) and Khadilkar's play Ktcakavadha, in which I must declare an interest, was not really of any direct relevance to the Ganesotsava as is implied (pp. 241-2). It may be no coincidence that the proof-reading seems a great deal worse at this end of the book. However, these are mere niggles. Professor Courtright has turned his 1974 thesis into a most interesting and useful book. With its good index and bibliography it will be the primary reference work on Ganesa for many years.
225 citations
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