The Redistributive Effects of Political Reservation for Minorities: Evidence from India / Aimee Chin, Nishith Prakash.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chin, Aimee.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Prakash, Nishith.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w16509.

NBER working paper series no. w16509

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

The Redistributive Effects of Political Reservation for Minorities

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2010.

Summary:

We examine the impact of political reservation for disadvantaged minority groups on poverty. To address the concern that political reservation is endogenous, we take advantage of the state-time variation in reservation in state legislative assemblies in India generated by national policies that cause reservations to be revised and the time lags with which revised reservations are implemented. Using data on sixteen major Indian states for the period 1960-2000, we find that increasing the share of seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes significantly reduces poverty while increasing the share of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes has no impact on poverty. Political reservation for Scheduled Tribes has a greater effect on rural poverty than urban poverty, and appears to benefit people near the poverty line as well as those far below it.

Notes:

Print version record

October 2010.