Why Political Reservations?

Many countries are amending their political systems to set aside positions to groups, such as women and racial or religious minorities, that are perceived as being disadvantaged. Using evidence from India, this article assesses the case for these reservations. JEL: H4, O15 ∗Acknowledgments: I thank Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Petia Topalova for their collaboration on these projects, as well as Greg Fischer for outstanding research assistance and great comments. I thank Abhijit Banerjee, Rohini Pande, and seminar participants at the EEA meetings in Madrid for comments. I gratefully acknowledge