Gender Inequality and Caste: Field Experimental Evidence from India

Asad Islam, Debayan Pakrashi (), Soubhagya Sahoo (), Liang Wang and Yves Zenou
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Debayan Pakrashi: Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

No 14713, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: Using a field experiment in India where patients are randomly assigned to rank among a set of physicians of the same gender but with different castes and years of experience, we show that the differences in patients' physician choices are consistent with gender-based statistical discrimination. Labor market experience cannot easily overcome the discrimination that female doctors suffer. Further, we find that gender discrimination is greater for lower caste doctors, who typically suffer from caste discrimination. Given the increasing share of professionals from a lower caste background, our results suggest that the 'intersectionality' between gender and caste leads to increased gender inequality among professionals in India.

Keywords: caste discrimination; statistical discrimination; gender discrimination; intersectionality; affirmative action (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 J15 J16 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2021-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-gen, nep-isf and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2021, 190, 111-124.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Gender inequality and caste: Field experimental evidence from India (2021)
Working Paper: Gender inequality and caste: Field experimental evidence from India (2021)
Working Paper: Gender inequality and caste: Field experimental evidence from India (2021)
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