Does teachers’ caste identity affect students’ mental health? Evidence from Bihar, India

NCAER hosted a seminar titled “Does Teachers’ Caste Identity Affect Students’ Mental Health? Evidence from Bihar, India,” presented by Dr Ritwik Banerjee (Associate Professor, IIM Bangalore) and discussed by Dr Sandip Datta (Assistant Professor, DSE), as part of its Dialogue Room Seminar Series, chaired by Dr Bornali Bhandari, moderated by Dr Jyoti Thakur, and organised by Dr Souryabrata Mohapatra on Monday, 2 December 2024, at 3:00 PM on campus.

Presenter: Dr. Ritwik Banerjee, Associate Professor, IIM Bangalore ¹

Discussant: Dr. Sandip Datta, Assistant Professor, DSE ²

Chair: Dr. Bornali Bhandari, Professor, NCAER³

 Abstract:

Social identity-based prejudice has a debilitating effect on various life outcomes. While social science literature primarily focuses on the economic and social consequences, the mental health effects of such biases are vastly under-studied. We investigate this issue in the context of caste discrimination in Bihar, India, using a large-scale, detailed, representative survey of public schools. We find that a backward caste student has a 0.42σ higher depression score and is 19 percentage points more likely to be categorised as ‘depressed’ relative to a forward caste student when taught by a forward caste teacher. As a potential mechanism, we show that forward-caste teachers systematically underestimate the learning levels of backward-caste students relative to forward-caste ones. This constitutes an objective measure of teachers’ caste-based prejudice. Further, when taught by forward caste teachers, backward caste students exhibit considerably lower levels of educational aspirations relative to their forward caste counterparts.

Keywords: Caste bias; Mental health; Depression; Aspiration; Education; Bihar

Short bios:

¹ Ritwik Banerjee is an Associate Professor of Economics at IIM Bangalore. His primary research area is at the intersection between behavioural and developmental economics, and he extensively uses experimental methods in his research. Some topics he has investigated or is presently investigating are corruption, inequality, education and discrimination. His research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Public Economics and European Economic Review. Prior to his current assignment, Ritwik worked as a doctoral research fellow at Aarhus University, Denmark, with an independent grant from the Social Science Research Council of Denmark. He was an Academic Visitor at the Research Department of Federal Reserve, Chicago during the summer of 2012, a Visiting Scholar at the Economics Department, Harvard University, in Spring 2015, Visiting Scholar at UNU WIDER, Helsinki in Spring 2019, Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellow, University of Berkeley in Fall 2019, and Humboldt Fellow, Goettingen University, 2022-25. He has also served as a Consultant at the World Bank in Washington DC and as a Research Associate at ICRIER, New Delhi. For more information on his research, please visit https://www.ritwikbanerjee.in/.

² Sandip Datta is an Assistant Professor at the Delhi School of Economics. He earned his PhD from IIT Delhi in 2018, and his research spans education, health, labour and politics. He has published in esteemed journals like the World Bank Economic Review and Oxford Development Studies. Sandip is also an active peer reviewer for prominent journals, including the Journal of Development Studies, Economic Modelling, WBER, etc. His diverse academic achievements highlight his significant contributions to the field of social economics. For more details, please visit http://econdse.org/sandip-datta/.

³ Bornali Bhandari is a Full Professor at NCAER with a background in international economics and macroeconomics, specifically focusing on the impact of globalisation on development. Currently, she is engaged in a number of industry studies, including automobiles, farm mechanisation and digitisation. Her wider research interests include analysis of skilling from a 3-E perspective (education, employability and employment), e-Governance, infrastructure, particularly the roads and ICT sectors, G-20 issues like climate change financing and reserve currency, FDI and trade-related issues. She also oversees the production of the NCAER Quarterly Business Expectations Surveys. Bornali has received her doctorate degree from the University of Oregon, USA. For more information, please visit https://www.ncaer.org/people/bornali-bhandari.