Castes and Labor Mobility

We examine the relative fortunes of the historically disadvantaged scheduled castes and tribes (SC/ST) in India in terms of their education attainment, occupation choices, consumption and wages. We study the period 1983–2005 using household survey data from successive rounds of the National Sample Survey. We find that this period has been characterized by a significant convergence of education, occupation distribution, wages and consumption levels of SC/STs toward non-SC/ST levels. Using various decomposition approaches we find that the improvements in education account for a major part of the wage and consumption convergence. (JEL I24, O15, O17, Z13)