From quotas to classrooms: The impact of minority representatives on development and education in India

Abstract

We provide new evidence on the effect of minority elected state representatives on economic development and schooling in India. Using data on candidates in all state assembly elections from 1974 to 2017, we exploit two discontinuities in the reservation of constituencies for Scheduled Castes (SCs). As economic indicators, we use development outcomes from census data in 2001 and 2011, some 27 and 37 years after the reservation process was implemented. Consistent with Jensenius (2015), we find that the economic development of reserved constituencies continues to keep pace with that of unreserved constituencies. Importantly, we find evidence that SC reservation after 2008 had an effect on schooling outcomes by increasing the impact of the Right to Education Act, a policy that varied widely in its implementation across India. We also find that the reservation process after 2008 significantly increased female representation and increased affiliation with political parties.