"Does Academic Peer Quality Promote Solidarity? Evidence from Caste Based Peer Effects in India," with Sheetal Sekhri, University of Virginia. Thursday, November 8, 3:40 PM-5 PM, 368A Heady Hall.

Dr. Sekhri is Giorgio Ruffolo Research Fellow in the Sustainability Science Program at Harvard University and an assistant professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Virginia. She received her PhD in Development Economics from Brown University (2008) and her B.S. in economics from Iowa State (2002). Her research interests focus on the consequences of groundwater scarcity in developing countries and market and non-market mechanisms that can promote groundwater conservation. Sheetal’s work explores what institutions and incentives can promote the adoption of water saving technologies and practices in agriculture. Sheetal is contributing to collaborative work with the Initiative on Public-Private Partnerships to Promote Sustainable Development in India led by Professor Rohini Pande. She is a fellow of the International Growth Centre’s India Country Team. Her previous work in India includes studies that establish a causal link between poverty, conflict, and groundwater scarcity and examine the role of power subsidies and political incentives in accelerating groundwater depletion. She has studied the link between public provision of groundwater and water-tables. In a related project, she will also use observational data to explore the effects of agricultural trade promotion on ground water. She is also collaborating with a non-profit organization in Rajasthan, India to examine how water scarcity influences the lives of rural women and girls from an economic and a social perspective.

Abstract: This paper investigates whether academic peer quality in colleges reduces social distance between castes in India by examining academic peer effects across castes. Using cutoff based admission rules and a unique data set linking admission data to college exit exam scores; I find that the better quality of high-caste students has a negative e ect on the performance of the low-caste students. The peer quality of the low-caste students also negatively affects high-caste students, with more pronounced effects on high achievers. These findings suggest that college environment does not succeed at reducing caste-based social barriers.