Research

  Working Papers

             (Job Market Paper) "The Impact of Caste Residential Segregation on Children's Education Outcomes: Evidence from Rural India" (with Alok K. Bohara). Link 

Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) are historically disadvantaged communities that face discrimination on grounds of their social positioning in society. Using the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS, 2011-2012), nationally representative longitudinal data from India, we estimate the effect of SC, ST, or both SC/ST caste residential segregation on children's education outcomes in rural India. More particularly, we investigated the cognitive ability skills (Reading, Math, and Writing abilities), school absenteeism, and repetition of grades for the education variables. To address the endogeneity of caste residential segregation, we instrument it with distance to district headquarters, further controlling for various socio-economic variables. A dearth in the literature concerns the causality between caste residential segregation and children's education outcomes in India. This paper presents new insights into caste residential segregation and its impact on children's education outcomes in rural India. The residual inclusion control function approach estimates suggest that caste residential segregation dampens the educational outcomes of SC/ST children significantly and has no significant impact on children from advantaged groups.

 "Hypergamy, Domestic Violence, and Health Injuries: A Story of Indian Marriage" (with Alok K. Bohara and Richard Santos). Link 

 Hypergamy and Hypogamy are the act of marrying a person with a lower/higher sociological or educational background, respectively. We simultaneously estimate the effect of caste hypergamy (marrying up) and caste hypogamy (marrying down) on domestic violence and the subsequent impact on related health injuries. More specifically, we used an IV-ordered probit regression technique, which addresses the endogeneity of domestic violence and the ordered nature of the health injuries variable. This study uses the Demographic Health Survey (National Family Health Survey of India, 2021). The estimates suggest that caste hypergamy has a positive and significant increase in domestic violence and health injuries after controlling for various sociodemographic variables, domestic risk factors, household composition, household welfare, occupation, and place of residence. We also found a non-linear relationship between domestic violence and health injuries, i.e., a lower level of domestic violence is associated with low-level health injuries, and a higher level of violence is associated with higher health injuries.

  "Type of Marriage, Decision Making, and Investment in Women's Health" (with Alok K. Bohara and Sarah Stith).

We use a generalized structural equation model (GSEM) to analyze the effect of caste hypergamy on women's utilization of healthcare services through its mediation effect on women's autonomy in the decision-making process. This study uses the Demographic Health Survey (National Family Health Survey of India, 2021). The estimates suggest that the mediation effect, i.e., the effect of caste hypergamy on the utilization of healthcare services through women's autonomy in the decision-making process (calculated using |(IE/ATE) *100| where IE is the indirect effect & ATE is the average treatment effect respectively) is 35.34%.

“Unveiling Caste Disparities in Under-Five Mortality in India Using Bayesian Model Averaging and Time Trend Analysis: A   Repeated Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study from 1987 to 2021”  (with Smita Pakhale et al.) Link