The Redistributive Effects of Political Reservation for Minorities: Evidence from India

Aimee Chin and Nishith Prakash

No 4391, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We examine the impact of political reservation for disadvantaged minority groups on poverty. To address the concern that political reservation is endogenous in the relationship between poverty and reservation, we take advantage of the state-time variation in reservation in state legislative assemblies in India that arises from national policies that cause reservations to be revised and the time lags with which the revised reservations are implemented due to the timing of state elections. Using data on sixteen major Indian states for the period 1960-1992, 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.

Keywords: poverty; affirmative action; minorities; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I38 J15 J78 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2009-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa, nep-dev and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published in: Journal of Development Economics, 2011, 96 (2), 265-277

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Related works:
Journal Article: The redistributive effects of political reservation for minorities: Evidence from India (2011)
Working Paper: The Redistributive Effects of Political Reservation for Minorities: Evidence from India (2010)
Working Paper: The Redistributive Effects of Political Reservation for Minorities: Evidence from India (2010)
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