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  3. American Economic Review
  4. March 2019
  5. Familiarity Does Not Breed Contempt: Generosity, Discrimination, and Diversity in Delhi Schools

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Familiarity Does Not Breed Contempt: Generosity, Discrimination, and Diversity in Delhi Schools

  • Gautam Rao
American Economic Review
vol. 109, no. 3, March 2019
(pp. 774–809)
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Abstract

I exploit a natural experiment in Indian schools to study how being integrated with poor students affects the social behaviors and academic outcomes of rich students. Using administrative data, lab and field experiments to measure outcomes, I find that having poor classmates makes rich students (i) more prosocial, generous, and egalitarian; and (ii) less likely to discriminate against poor students, and more willing to socialize with them. These effects are driven by personal interactions between rich and poor students. In contrast, I find mixed but overall modest impacts on rich students' academic achievement.

Citation

Rao, Gautam. 2019. "Familiarity Does Not Breed Contempt: Generosity, Discrimination, and Diversity in Delhi Schools." American Economic Review 109 (3): 774–809. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20180044

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • C90 Design of Experiments: General
  • D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
  • I21 Analysis of Education
  • I24 Education and Inequality
  • O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
  • Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification