Affirmative action in the United States and India: a comparative perspective
By V. Silvério. 2006
In this book I undertake a comparative analysis of " affirmative action " in the United States and " reservation policies " in India. These are arguably the two most important national experiences with positive discrimination in favor of historically disadvantaged racial/ethnic minority groups. After reviewing the history of positive discrimination policies in each country, and the debates they have spawned, I develop a comprehensive list of the claims made for and against such policies. Identifying the implied potential benefits and costs of positive discrimination, I elaborate a cost-benefit framework for analysis of the effectiveness of positive discrimination policies. I utilize this cost-benefit framework to develop a general model for the comparative analysis of positive discrimination policies, which I apply first to assess the likely consequences of affirmative action in the US and reservation policies in India. My comparative analysis of the US and Indian cases suggests that the particular procedures used in applying positive discrimination policies, as well as the general societal context in which they are applied, tend to be more conducive in the United States than in India to the generation of overall benefits greater than overall costs. A definitive analysis of the success or failure of positive discrimination policies requires that the claims of benefits and costs be put to the test of empirical evidence. Toward this end I review systematically the available empirical evidence on the consequences of positive discrimination policies in admissions to higher educational institution in the US and India. The evidence suggests that in both countries these policies have generated some, but not all, of the benefits expected by their proponents, as well as some, but not all, of the costs anticipated by their opponents. I conclude that in each country the issue should not be whether to continue such policies – but how best to structure them so as to maximize their net benefits. Preface My interest in writing this book has two primary sources – one going back to the early years of my academic career, and the other much more recent. During the 1960s I spent a total of four years in India, teaching economics at the Indian Statistical Institute and working on problems of economic development planning. During that time I developed great affection for and appreciation of the people and the cultures of India; and for many years thereafter my teaching and research was oriented to the …
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Citations in the corpus
- On formalizing fairness in prediction with machine learning (2017, background): “In India, a study by Deshpande and Weisskopf (13) found no evidence of loss in efficiency because of affirmative action policies.”
- Affirmative Action and Productivity in the Indian Railways (2016, background): “See Deshpande (2011) and Weisskopf (2004) for details of India’s AA policies, as well as discussion of the debates in India surrounding these policies. or value added, we also compiled data on railway revenues to obtain an alternative constant -price time series for total railway revenue.”
- Affirmative Action in India and the United States (2005, background): “In the same year, the US Supreme Court ruled that an employer could not require certain minimum credentials before hiring a person if such a requirement had the effect of a “built-in headwind” for minorities (Weisskopf, 2004).”
- Does Access to Formal Agricultural Credit Depend on Caste (2013, unknown): “In the second case, government policy might also attempt to alleviate historical disadvantage through affirmative action such as political reservation (Pande, 2003; Prakash & Chin, 2011), or quotas in government educational institutions (Bertrand, Hanna, & Mullainathan, 2010) and public-sector jobs ”