Identities and public policies: Unexpected effects of political reservations for women in India. (July 2021) - Cassan, Guilhem
Highlights: A person's identity is associated with various social categories, such as gender and ethnicity. The paper demonstrates the importance of the multiplicity of identity dimensions for the design of public policies. We exploit the randomized nature of political reservations for women in India. We show that a policy designed along the gender dimension alters the distribution of the benefits of this policy along the caste dimension. We propose differential gender norms across caste groups as the mechanism behind these findings. Abstract: Identity is an important determinant of economic behavior. While the existing literature focuses on one identity dimension at a time, we show that the multiplicity of identity dimensions matters for economic behavior and that neglecting it may lead policymakers to overlook important, unexpected effects of economic policies. We exploit the randomized nature of political reservations for women in India to show that a policy designed along one identity dimension (gender) alters the distribution of the benefits of this policy along another one (caste). We propose differences in gender norms across caste groups as a mechanism.