Abstract
India has a long history of implementing Affirmative Action (AA) policies, commonly known as reservations, which explicitly favor historically disadvantaged groups. Evidence suggests that while AA policies benefit disadvantaged groups, they may come at a cost to advantaged groups (Bertrand et al., 2010; Gulzar et al., 2020). Explicit Affirmative Action policies may imply trade-offs not only due to efficiency concerns but also can potentially induce behavioral responses from both advantaged and disadvantaged groups, in highly competitive settings like admission in public universities. In such settings, the impact of integration policies aimed at reducing behavioral responses, such as mixing students in hostel rooms to increase exposure to different caste groups, remains unclear. On one hand, such policies can reduce misperceptions about the disadvantaged groups, thereby decreasing prejudice and stereotypes (Boisjoly et al. 2006; Carrell, Hoekstra, and West 2019; Rao 2019; Corno et al. 2022). On the other hand, mixing can make stereotypes salient and perpetuate existing tensions, particularly in competitive contact (Lowe 2021; Tabellini 2020).
For this project, I will examine the impact of increased exposure to students from different social groups in public engineering institutes in India, induced by an integration policy that allocates students to hostel rooms. I pose two sets of questions, i) What is the effect of roommates' identity on academic and job market outcomes? In high competitive settings, do interactions with the advantaged students induce negative outcomes due to stereotypes and reduced self confidence? ii) Do social interactions with students from different social groups change attitudes towards AA policies and stereotypes, particularly for the advantaged groups? and do these attitudes play a role in explaining the effects on mental health of the disadvantaged groups?