A Division of Laborers: Identity and Efficiency in India

Guilhem Cassan, Daniel Keniston and Tatjana Kleineberg

No 28462, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Workers’ social identity affects their occupation, and therefore the structure and prosperity of the aggregate economy. We estimate a general equilibrium Roy model of this phenomenon in the Indian caste system, where work and identity are particularly intertwined. New data on occupation, wages, and caste’s traditional occupations and social status show that workers are over-represented in their traditional occupations and under-represented in socially higher or lower occupations. We consider counterfactuals removing castes’ hierarchical and occupational links. Despite more efficient human capital allocation, aggregate output gains are small–in some counterfactuals negative–due to weaker caste networks and reduced learning across generations.

JEL-codes: E24 E71 J21 J62 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma and nep-mac
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Related works:
Working Paper: A Division of Laborers: Identity and Efficiency in India (2022)
Working Paper: A Division of Laborers: Identity and Efficiency in India (2021)
Working Paper: A Division of Laborers: Identity and Efficiency in India (2021)
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