The spillover effects of affirmative action on competitiveness and unethical behavior

Abstract

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Stabbed in the back? Mandated political representation and murders

“…Further results obtained from IHDS data align with the results of the experimental literature on violence as a response to affirmative action (Banerjee et al 2018;Brown and Chowdhury 2017;Leibbrandt et al 2017;Fallucchi and Quercia 2018;Gangadharan et al 2016).…”

“…However, the beneficiaries of affirmative action policies may, as a side effect of 29 these policies, be the victims of a backlash effect. Backlash after affirmative action has recently been documented in experimental settings (Banerjee et al 2018;Brown and Chowdhury 2017;Leibbrandt et al 2017;Fallucchi and Quercia 2018;Gangadharan et al 2016). This paper is the first to test the question outside experiments, on nation-wide data.…”

“…The only artefactual field experiment I know of documents a backlash from members of the dominant group after the implementation of gender quotas (Gangadharan et al 2016). Banerjee et al (2018) introduce an important nuance: in their lab experiment, backlash happens after affirmative action only if the unprotected players discover that they have lost during the game because of the affirmative action. Such a publicity of the loss echoes the case of a high caste member losing an election due to an electoral caste quota.…”

Social Identity and STEM Choice: Evidence from Higher Secondary Schooling in India

“…Munshi & Rosenzweig (2006) find that the institution of caste system shapes the career choices of men and women of the marginalized caste groups through the social networks of traditional occupations. Secondly, behavioral traits such as competitiveness, confidence, and grit, which have been shown to increase the likelihood of STEM participation are found to be lower among the historically marginalized caste groups: SC, ST, and OBC groups compared to the OC group (Banerjee et al, 2018;Dasgupta et al, 2020). Thirdly, the disadvantaged caste groups have been found to have lower levels of aspirations, perceived income adequacy, and actual earnings (Goel & Deshpande, 2020;Sarkar et al, 2020).…”

The Persistent Effect of Competition on Prosociality

“…For a related study on spillover effects of affirmative action on competitiveness and unethical behavior, seeBanerjee, Gupta, and Villeval (2018).…”