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Elite Dominance and Under-Investment in Mass Education: Disparity in the Social Development of the Indian States, 1960-92

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Author Info
Sarmistha Pal () (Brunel University and IZA)
Sugata Ghosh () (Brunel University)

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Abstract

Inter- and intra-state disparities in levels of literacy rates in India are striking, especially for the marginalized groups of women and low caste population. The present paper offers an explanation of this disparate development in terms of elite dominance that discriminates against the minority groups of people and systematically under-invests in mass education. We experiment with various indirect economic and political measures of elite dominance. Results based on the Indian state-level data for the period 1960-92 suggest that higher share of land held by the top 5% of the population (a) lowers spending on education as well as total developmental spending and (b) increases total non-developmental spending. Greater proportion of minority representations (female and low caste members) in the ruling government however fails to have any perceptible impact on development (including education) spending in our sample. This analysis also identifies land reform and poverty alleviation as two important policy instruments to erode the initial disadvantage of the marginalised people.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 2852.

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Length: 45 pages
Date of creation: Jun 2007
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2852

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Related research
Keywords: under-investment in education; discrimination against female and low-caste population; persistence of elite dominance; poverty; land reform;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities and Races; Non-labor Discrimination
O15 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
P48 - Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Other Economic Systems: Political Economy; Legal Institutions; Property Rights

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