Does Political Reservation for Minorities Affect Child Labor? Evidence from India

Elizabeth Kaletski and Nishith Prakash

No 8212, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of state level political reservation for two minority groups – Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes – on child labor in India. We estimate the effect of political reservation on child labor by exploiting the state variation in the share of seats reserved for the two groups in state legislative assemblies mandated by the Constitution of India. Using data from state and household level surveys on fifteen major Indian states, we find that at the household level, Schedule Tribe reservation decreases the incidence of child labor, while Scheduled Caste reservation increases the total number of children working. Our results survive a variety of robustness checks and potential explanations for the differential impact of SC and ST political reservation are also explored, including geographic isolation, caste fragmentation, support for the Congress Party, and decentralization of power.

Keywords: child labor; minorities; affirmative action; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I38 J15 J22 J78 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2014-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: World Development, 2016, 87, 50 - 69

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Related works:
Journal Article: Does Political Reservation for Minorities Affect Child Labor? Evidence from India (2016)
Working Paper: Does Political Reservation for Minorities Affect Child Labor? Evidence from India (2014)
Working Paper: Does Political Reservation for Minorities Affect Child Labor? Evidence from India (2014)
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