Barriers or catalysts? Traditional institutions and social mobility in rural India

We examine how village-level social group dominance affects the educational and occupational mobility of minority and other social groups in rural India across multiple generations. Theoretically, we distinguish between upper caste and own group dominance and examine the mechanisms underpinning inequality in mobility outcomes. We find inequality in upward educational mobility to have significantly narrowed over time. Scheduled Castes (SCs) have higher educational mobility in upper caste and own dominated villages, while Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Muslims perform worse in own dominated villages. In contrast, for occupational mobility, we find that Muslims used to be on par with upper castes but have experienced setbacks in the recent generation. There is no evidence of other minority groups catching up with upper castes while SCs and STs are particularly disadvantaged. SCs, once more, perform better in their own dominated villages. Exploring mechanisms that explain the relationships between land dominance regimes and intergenerational mobility, we find notable inequalities in the provision of a wide range of public goods with Muslim and ST dominated villages being particularly disadvantaged. We find location in unfavorable agroecological zones, village infrastructure, and social cohesion to be pathways through which upper caste and own group dominance affect the educational and occupational mobility of minority groups. Our findings suggest that traditional institutions can be both a barrier to or catalyst for social mobility, depending on the social identity of the dominant group in the village.