Exploring the Role of Caste in Economic Welfare

Project Summary

The caste system in India and other countries of South Asia limits social and economic access to a large section of the society due to inherent discrimination and bias in favour of the upper castes. In the economic domain, this discrimination leads to little access to human capital formation, occupations and markets (including labour, credit and goods markets). Similarly, in the social sphere, large sections of the society are kept out of social, religious and cultural networks. This limited access of large parts of the economy and society is likely to lead to not only unfair allocation of resources but also to inefficient allocation of resources, with adverse implications for welfare and social mobility.

The community will organize a workshop in June 2024 bringing together researchers from the GW4 community and experts from other universities in India and the UK to understand the complex linkages between the caste system and economic welfare. The workshop will include diverse interdisciplinary perspectives from economics, management, humanities and industry, facilitating knowledge exchange and discussions to identify important research questions on this topic that could be taken forward.