Operationalizing Inequality: Low Caste Status, Village Composition, and Public Goods Access in Rural India

Abstract

Using data from the 2005 Indian Human Development Survey, this paper seeks to differentiate the effects of systemic and interpersonal discrimination by examining whether low caste individuals and households in India have better public goods access when they live in villages where they constitute a majority or minority. I show that low caste villagers have better outcomes in general in villages where there are higher concentrations of other low caste people.