Discrimination as a constraint on human capital acquisition: Evidence from caste and gender inequality in India

This dissertation consists of three essays that examine constraints on human capital investments in India. The first paper tests whether Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) cluster in the worst high schools because of caste-based prejudice in admissions or because schools maximize publicly observable test-scores. It uses administrative test-score data and compares SC/ST and non-SC/ST students within the same school to infer whether schools hold SC/STs to higher admissions standards. The results suggest that schools do not exhibit a caste-bias in admissions. As a group, SC/STs do not outperform their non-SC/ST classmates. This holds both when differences in mean performance proxy for differences in admissions thresholds and when various quantiles of the SC/ST and non-SC/ST test-score distributions are compared within schools.;The second paper combines this test-score data with data on rainfall to examine the effects of income volatility on human capital investments. The results suggest that these investments fluctuate considerably in response to shocks on both the extensive and intensive margins (in terms of both participation and achievement) and that adolescent girls are the most vulnerable. Disinvestments on the intensive margin cancel out any selection effects that should result from the truncation implied by decreased participation since adverse shocks appear to decrease mean achievement and increase its dispersion. Expansions of credit and insurance markets can therefore have a substantial impact on overall human capital accumulation and indirectly promote gender equality.;The third paper evaluates the Apni Beti, Apna Dhan program implemented by the state government of Haryana, which provides cash incentives to couples upon the birth of a girl. Data from nationally representative fertility surveys and the Census of India and an empirical strategy that exploits the program's eligibility criteria reveals that this intervention has been successful in improving skewed sex ratios at birth. The results also suggest, however, that these improvements are not sustained in the medium-run in terms of survival past the first year of life and that female children enjoy lower rates of inoculation after the program.