Topic 2 - Social Identity - Does caste identity still matter for occupational choice?

Group Members: Manav Sachdev, Raunaq Singh Bawa, Sapriya Sharma, and Uday Srivastava
Section: ECO1001-3

Section 1: Potential Strengths of the Paper

1. One of the greatest strengths of this study lies in its rigorous methodology. In her two
surveys, the researcher incorporates control tasks along with identity tasks. For every
task with a particular caste association—such as the association of washing clothes
with the Dhoba caste—there existed a corresponding control task lacking any caste
associations—like washing farming tools, in the specified example.1 By demonstrating
the variations in the responses of the control and target groups, she could successfully
illustrate a causal link between identity and take-up rates. Further, the researcher
demonstrates how her investigation’s results remain nearly identical even with variations
in the caste rankings used in her surveys. The fact that the respondents answered
consistently (vis-a-vis their aversion to occupations associated with castes “ranked”
differently) with two different sets of caste rankings, only strengthens the conclusions
reached.2
2. The researcher successfully isolates the cause of the change in take-up rates between
the control and target groups. For one, the study investigated the behaviour of only one
gender to eliminate the effect of gender on take-up rates. It also dealt with social image
concerns by randomising whether the sample’s decisions were disclosed to their
neighbours.3 The researcher further formulated a separate section (4.4) to assess the
validity of several alternative explanations like worker experience and employer-related
expectations.4 In this section, she disproves these explanations either theoretically or by
imposing safeguards in the methodology of the experiment.
Section 2: Potential Weaknesses of the Paper
1. The researcher concludes that caste acts as a barrier to people pursuing careers where
they may have “potential aptitude or existing skills”.5 Yet, the paper’s focus is far too

1
Suanna Oh, “Does Identity Affect Labor Supply?,” CESifo Working Papers 2021, no. 9487 (December
2021), p.3.
2
Oh, “Does Identity Affect Labor Supply?,” p.24.
3
Suanna Oh, “Caste Identity Still Matters for Occupational Choice,” Ideas For India, July 29, 2020.
4
Oh, “Does Identity Affect Labor Supply?,” p.29.
5
Oh, “Does Identity Affect Labor Supply?,” p.6.
 limited in scope to suggest such an overarching conclusion. This is due to the nature of
the sample under investigation. This sample comprises “630 male casual labourers”6
from rural Odisha. The nature of their occupations and the alternative offered to them in
the survey is “elementary”7 which requires no qualifications beyond primary-level
education and some on-the-job training.8 Higher-skill occupations are more a feature of
urban and industrial parts of the country, which are demographically and culturally unlike
rural Odisha. Therefore it is difficult to assert that there exists a misallocation of skills
and talents when only low-skill occupations have been considered.
2. The study fails to take into account the impact of public policy in the identity-based
distribution of jobs. In states where public policy has been successful in providing
equitable access to education and social services, one may intuitively conclude that all
caste groups have experienced upliftment—allowing them to transcend caste barriers in
their occupations. In other regions, where public policy has only provided inequitable
access to education and social services, dominant castes are intuitively understood to
be primary beneficiaries. In the former case, public policy intervention breaks traditional
identity-based social division of labour, whereas in the latter, the social division of labour
persists as a factor of inequitable access to opportunities. Owing to its limited scope,
the study fails to address these conditions, and consequently, draws a potentially
erroneous causal link.
References:

Oh, Suanna. “Caste Identity Still Matters for Occupational Choice.” Ideas For India, July 29,
2020.
https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/social-identity/does-caste-identity-still-matters-for-oc
cupational-choice.html.

Oh, Suanna. “Does Identity Affect Labor Supply?” CESifo Working Papers 2021, no. 9487
(December 2021).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OPY49fjA5mVc68FE0Pccj-fboMhXzta-/view.

6
Oh, “Does Identity Affect Labor Supply?,” p.3.
7
International Labour Organization, “International Standard Classification of Occupations,” ISCO-08 1
(2012), p.14.
8
International Labour Organization, “Occupations,” p.12.
International Labour Organization. “International Standard Classification of Occupations.”
ISCO-08 Volume 1 (2012).
https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/pu
blication/wcms_172572.pdf.