Generosity, discrimination, and diversity in Delhi private schools

Title:

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

Authors:

Gautam Rao. American Economic Review, 2019, 109(3), 774-809.

What’s it about?

In 2007, the government of Delhi, India, required elite private schools to reserve 20 percent of places for poor students paying no fees, and to integrate them into the schools.

The government partially met the costs. The policy was brought in at varying times, and coincidentally provided a natural experiment for studying the effect of social mixing. 

This paper examines the effect of this policy on rich children’s generosity, and on their pro-social behaviours.

The significance of this study lies in its relevance for reform proposals for reducing the extent of social class segmentation in Britain’s private schools. 

Methodology:

A measure of pupils’ generosity is whether they voluntarily participate in charity schemes, an opportunity available to all children in Delhi’s elite private schools.

The paper compares the participation of rich pupils who were classmates with poor pupils, with the participation of rich pupils who were mixed only with their fellow rich pupils.

The number of wealthy pupils taking part was 2,364. Students also took part in a ‘dictator game’, which is a game used by social scientists and economists to measure pro-social attitudes such as fairness.

Key findings:

• The Delhi government’s policy made rich students significantly more likely to volunteer to take part in charity schemes.
• The policy made rich students exhibit more egalitarian preferences, and be substantially more generous towards other students, whether these were poor or rich.
• These effects came about through rich students having poor students in their study groups.
• In a further test, the study found that the policy made rich students less likely to discriminate against poorer students.

The study confirms the value of educating children in a wider cross-section of society, and adds support to proposals to require greater social mixing in elite private schools elsewhere.

What are the limitations?

First, the study did not have enough observations to study the effects of the policy on poor students who were integrated into the private schools.

Second, the study could not study the long-term effects of the policy.

Third, the effects could vary according to the social context; caution would be needed if predicting the same effects in Britain.

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