Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/34877 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 3737
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Caste-based quotas in hiring have existed in the public sector in India for decades. Recently there has been debate about introducing similar quotas in private sector jobs. This paper uses an audit study to determine the extent of caste-based discrimination in the Indian private sector. On average low-caste applicants need to send 20 percent more resumes than high-caste applicants to get the same callback. Differences in callback which favor high-caste applicants are particularly large when hiring is done by male recruiters or by Hindu recruiters. This finding suggests that the differences in callback between high and low-caste applicants are not entirely due to statistical discrimination. High-caste applicants are also differentially favored by firms with a smaller scale of operations, while low-caste applicants are favored by firms with a larger scale of operations. This finding is consistent with taste-based theories of discrimination and with commitments made by large firms to hire actively from among low-caste groups.
Subjects: 
Field experiments
discrimination
public policy
human resources
JEL: 
C93
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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