• Login
View Item 
  • DASH Home
  • Harvard Kennedy School
  • HKS Center for International Development
  • View Item
  • DASH Home
  • Harvard Kennedy School
  • HKS Center for International Development
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Browse

All of DASH
  • Communities & Collections
  • By Issue Date
  • Author
  • Title
  • Keyword
  • FAS Department
This Collection
  • By Issue Date
  • Author
  • Title
  • Keyword

Submitters

  • Login
  • Quick submit
  • Waiver Generator

About

  • About DASH
  • DASH Stories
  • DASH FAQs
  • Accessibility
  • COVID-related Research
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy

Statistics

  • By Schools
  • By Collections
  • By Departments
  • By Items
  • By Country
  • By Authors

Why is Mobility in India so Low? Social Insurance, Inequality, and Growth

 
Thumbnail
View/Open
121.pdf (321.5Kb)
Author
Munshi, Kaivan
Rosenzweig, Mark R.
Published Version
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/cid/publications
Metadata
Show full item record
Citation
Munshi, Kaivan, and Mark R. Rosenzweig. “Why is Mobility in India so Low? Social Insurance, Inequality, and Growth.” CID Working Paper Series 2005.121, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, July 2005.
Abstract
This paper examines the hypothesis that the persistence of low spatial and marital mobility in rural India, despite increased growth rates and rising inequality in recent years, is due to the existence of sub-caste networks that provide mutual insurance to their members. Unique panel data providing information on caste loans and sub-caste identification are used to show that households that out-marry or migrate lose the services of these networks, which dampens mobility when alternative sources of insurance or finance of comparable quality are unavailable. At the aggregate level, the networks appear to have coped successfully with the rising inequality within sub-castes that accompanied the Green Revolution. Indeed, this increase in inequality lowered overall mobility, which was low to begin with, even further. The results suggest that caste networks will continue to smooth consumption in rural India for the foreseeable future, as they have for centuries.
Terms of Use
This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAA
Citable link to this page
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42482322

Collections
  • HKS Center for International Development [541]

Contact administrator regarding this item (to report mistakes or request changes)

e: osc@harvard.edu

t: +1 (617) 495 4089

Creative Commons license‌Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Except where otherwise noted, this work is subject to a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which allows anyone to share and adapt our material as long as proper attribution is given. For details and exceptions, see the Harvard Library Copyright Policy ©2022 Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College.

  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Contact
  • Harvard Library
  • Harvard University