arXiv subjects

Prasenjit Sarkhel

Publications and source records attributed to Prasenjit Sarkhel.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Social Diversity and Spread of Pandemic: Evidence from India

Compliance with the public health guidelines during a pandemic requires coordinated community actions which might be undermined in socially diverse areas. In this paper, we assess the relationship between caste-group diversity and the spread of COVID-19 infection during the nationwide lockdown and unlocking period in India. On the extensive margin, we find that caste-homogeneous districts systematically took more days to cross the concentration thresholds of 50 to 500 cases. Estimates on the intensive margin, using daily cases, further show that caste-homogeneous districts experienced slower growth in infection. Overall, the effects of caste-group homogeneity remained positive and statistically significant for 2.5 months (about 76 days) after the beginning of the lockdown and weakened with subsequent phases of the lockdown. The results hold even after accounting for the emergence of initial hotspots before lockdown, broader diffusion patterns through daily fixed effects, region fixed effects, and dynamic administrative response through time-variant lagged COVID-19 fatalities at the district level. These effects are not found to be confounded by differential levels of testing and underreporting of cases in some states. Consistent estimates from bias-adjusted treatment effects also ensure that our findings remain robust even after accounting for other unobservables. We find suggestive evidence of higher engagement of community health workers in caste-homogenous localities, which further increased after the lockdown. We posit this as one potential channel that can explain our results. Our findings reveal how caste-group diversity can be used to identify potential hotspots during public health emergencies and emphasize the importance of community health workers and decentralized policy response.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2020

Duration of exposure to inheritance law in India: Examining the heterogeneous effects on empowerment

Higher duration of programs that involve legal protection may entail gradual positive changes in social norms that can be leveraged by potential beneficiaries in their favor. This paper examines the heterogeneous impact of the duration of exposure to gender-neutral reforms in the inheritance law in India on two latent domains of women empowerment: intrinsic, which pertains to expansion of agency and instrumental which relates to ability to make decisions. The time lag between the year of the amendment in the respective states and the year of marriage generate exogenous variation in reform exposure across women. The findings indicate a significant non-linear increase in the instrumental as well as intrinsic empowerment. Importantly, improvements in education along with increase in the age of marriage and changes in family structure are found to be the potential channels that signal gradual relaxation of social norms and explain the higher returns to exposure on empowerment.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2020

Love Thy Neighbor? Perceived Community Abidance and Private Compliance to COVID-19 Norms in India

Compliance with measures like social distancing, hand-washing and wearing masks have emerged as the dominant strategy to combat health risk from the COVID-19 pandemic. These behaviors are often argued to be pro-social, where one must incur private cost to benefit or protect others. Using self-reported data across India (n=934) through online survey, we assess if changes in perceived community compliance can predict changes in individual compliance behavior, controlling for the potential confounders. We observe statistically significant and positive relationship between the two, even after accounting for omitted variable bias, plausibly allowing us to view the results from a plausible causal lens. Further, we find subsequent lockdowns such as the ones imposed in India, have a detrimental effect on individual compliance though the gains from higher perceived community compliance seems to offset this loss. We also find that sensitization through community can be particularly effective for people with pre-existing co-morbidities. Our findings underscore the need for multi-level behavioral interventions involving local actors and community institutions to sustain private compliance during the pandemic.

econ.GN↗